Thanks for the answer and for the welcoming wishes! I can’t believe the answer was so simple. I was using the right tools but I the order was wrong. I was able to recreate both the successful and unsuccessful results and noted that the transform mode needs to be selected first or otherwise it doesn’t work. If you choose the desired nodes first and only after that click the transform mode on, it doesn’t seem to form the bounding box (or just recognize it) anymore, so the additional two transforming functions won’t unlock retroactively.
But hey! At least it works and I learned a new trick along the way! Discovering the transform origin function made adjusting my character’s poses even more handy!
Thanks again for the help - this forum is such a sanity saver!