Rolling back the build.prop to see if it would download the update was a good thought. I am willing to try it once I get the device I will end up keeping. Need those values though and I don't know if anyone posted them in this forum. I came across some on the net in my search to find other models like this one but don't know if they would be helpful.Look at the number of developers who have left xda butt-hurt about some comment a nameless, faceless text blob made about them because of how they read it. The device suffers, the users suffer, and some kid is up in his room crying about a hobby gone wrong.
As for the rollback, it was only theory anyway so if there is any doubt about what to change its better to find an alternative. If you could get images of the partitions from stock condition, it is possible to build the install. At least that is all done off the device where it won't corrupt anything. You could root, get the system, data, cache, and boot then merge those with the Korean release to fill in the missing parts. To the best of my knowledge, the bootloader and such are not region specific. That should be verified first, though, because you can't go back later.
Mentioned to EVA it would be helpful if one of you more knowledgeable folks could write up the dd command line for adb once to make sure I have it right then list below it the adjustments I need to make for the partitions and resulting .img name. Just didn't have time yet to pull those together and check to make sure I pull something usable. Also I seem to have lost odin access to the camera I am returning but still have adb access while in the recovery. When I polled for partitions though it only gave me /dev and /system. Maybe you know what's up with that?
Merging those files with the Korean release was what I was aiming for when I mentioned the similarity. I wouldn't know particularly how to accomplish that and it may be quite a bit of work so likely a last resort. My concern with the bootloader would be whether or not Verizon locked their bootloader. This is using the Exynos 4412 like the Verizon GN2 with updates that locked their booloaders around the same time.