i've decided that the best way to deal with this for this particular collection of songs is just to:

1) open each project.
2) reset all the eqs.
2) load all the eqs.
3) export each individual track with the eqs and effects on them.
4) render.
5) save.

i'll have to check on a file-by-file basis, but i do believe that this should create outs that null with the files i have on the drive, which is largely what i want.

obviously, i want the project files to save the eqs properly, but it doesn't seem to want to do so and i'm kind of more interested in getting this done right now than i am in figuring that out.

i still don't know how long this has been happening for, or why it all of a sudden became apparent for these specific tracks if it had been happening the whole time. but, i'll have to try a similar process for each track after inri024 and see whether the outcomes are noticeable/preferable or not.

for now, if this process works then i should be back to working on the last few tracks of this within a day or two.

although, i should take note of this: when i open any of these projects, and close them again without doing anything, they always ask me if i want to save the file. i always say no. but, it seems to realize that the mixer values that are loaded are different than the values in the file.

it's very strange. but i'll take the workaround, for now.