OK, I may have inadvertently resolved it.
I found how to remove the desktop and boot to terminal using raspi-config. I wanted to understand the RAM cost. I have an RPi4b with 2GB RAM.
FYI:
in terminal mode after boot I have 1.5 GB free.
In desktop gui with DWC running at 1280x900 I have 960 KB free.
Anyway, after switching back to GUI mode everything boots as expected and DWC starts. So I suspect my config was whacked somehow (I touched nothing!) and running the rasp-config corrected the situation.
Sorry for all the bother.