I restarted with a fresh install to ensure it's all as clean as possible.  T-D seems to run with a configuration from somewhere other than the two noted source files.

this is what transmission-daemon is running with:
$ transmission-daemon -d

{
    "alt-speed-down": 50, 
    "alt-speed-enabled": false, 
    "alt-speed-time-begin": 540, 
    "alt-speed-time-day": 127, 
    "alt-speed-time-enabled": false, 
    "alt-speed-time-end": 1020, 
    "alt-speed-up": 50, 
    "bind-address-ipv4": "0.0.0.0", 
    "bind-address-ipv6": "::", 
    "blocklist-enabled": false, 
    "dht-enabled": true, 
    "download-dir": "\/home\/nimda\/Downloads", 
    "encryption": 1, 
    "incomplete-dir": "\/home\/nimda\/.config\/transmission-daemon\/Incomplete", 
    "incomplete-dir-enabled": false, 
    "lazy-bitfield-enabled": true, 
    "message-level": 2, 
    "open-file-limit": 32, 
    "peer-limit-global": 240, 
    "peer-limit-per-torrent": 60, 
    "peer-port": 51413, 
    "peer-port-random-high": 65535, 
    "peer-port-random-low": 49152, 
    "peer-port-random-on-start": false, 
    "peer-socket-tos": 0, 
    "pex-enabled": true, 
    "port-forwarding-enabled": true, 
    "preallocation": 1, 
    "proxy": "", 
    "proxy-auth-enabled": false, 
    "proxy-auth-password": "", 
    "proxy-auth-username": "", 
    "proxy-enabled": false, 
    "proxy-port": 80, 
    "proxy-type": 0, 
    "ratio-limit": 2.0000, 
    "ratio-limit-enabled": false, 
    "rename-partial-files": true, 
    "rpc-authentication-required": false, 
    "rpc-bind-address": "0.0.0.0", 
    "rpc-enabled": false, 
    "rpc-password": "", 
    "rpc-port": 9091, 
    "rpc-username": "", 
    "rpc-whitelist": "127.0.0.1", 
    "rpc-whitelist-enabled": true, 
    "speed-limit-down": 100, 
    "speed-limit-down-enabled": false, 
    "speed-limit-up": 100, 
    "speed-limit-up-enabled": false, 
    "umask": 18, 
    "upload-slots-per-torrent": 14
}

while my edited file is here (copied from the URL in my prior note):
$ sudo cat /var/lib/transmission-daemon/info/settings.json
{
"alt-speed-down": 500,
"alt-speed-enabled": true,
"alt-speed-time-begin": 480,
"alt-speed-time-day": 127,
"alt-speed-time-enabled": true,
"alt-speed-time-end": 0,
"alt-speed-up": 10,
"bind-address-ipv4": "0.0.0.0",
"bind-address-ipv6": "::",
"blocklist-enabled": false,
"dht-enabled": true,
"download-dir": "\/home\/nimda\/dl\torrent",
"download-limit": 1000,
"download-limit-enabled": 0,
"encryption": 2,
"incomplete-dir": "\/var\/lib\/transmission-daemon\/info\/Incomplete",
"incomplete-dir-enabled": false,
"lazy-bitfield-enabled": true,
"max-peers-global": 200,
"message-level": 2,
"open-file-limit": 32,
"peer-limit-global": 240,
"peer-limit-per-torrent": 60,
"peer-port": 20683,
"peer-port-random-high": 20500,
"peer-port-random-low": 20599,
"peer-port-random-on-start": true,
"peer-socket-tos": 0,
"pex-enabled": true,
"port-forwarding-enabled": false,
"preallocation": 1,
"proxy": "",
"proxy-auth-enabled": false,
"proxy-auth-password": "",
"proxy-auth-username": "",
"proxy-enabled": false,
"proxy-port": 80,
"proxy-type": 0,
"ratio-limit": 0.2500,
"ratio-limit-enabled": true,
"rename-partial-files": true,
"rpc-authentication-required": true,
"rpc-bind-address": "0.0.0.0",
"rpc-enabled": true,
"rpc-password": “password”,
"rpc-port": 9091,
"rpc-username": "transmission",
"rpc-whitelist": "127.0.0.1,10.0.0.0,192.168.0.0,*.*.*.*",
"rpc-whitelist-enabled": true,
"speed-limit-down": 1500,
"speed-limit-down-enabled": true,
"speed-limit-up": 50,
"speed-limit-up-enabled": true,
"umask": 2,
"upload-slots-per-torrent": 4,
"watch-dir": “\/home\/nimda\/dl\/torrent”,
"watch-dir-enabled": true
}

and this is what's over at:
$ sudo cat /etc/transmission-daemon/settings.json
{
    "blocklist-enabled": 0, 
    "download-dir": "\/var\/lib\/transmission-daemon\/downloads",
    "download-limit": 100, 
    "download-limit-enabled": 0, 
    "encryption": 1, 
    "max-peers-global": 200, 
    "peer-port": 51413, 
    "pex-enabled": 1, 
    "port-forwarding-enabled": 0, 
    "rpc-authentication-required": 1, 
    "rpc-password": "transmission", 
    "rpc-port": 9091, 
    "rpc-username": "transmission", 
    "rpc-whitelist": "127.0.0.1,10.10.0.0,192.168.0.0", 
    "upload-limit": 100, 
    "upload-limit-enabled": 0
}