Thank you @gohan !

In the end - it was wiring!

I first swapped out the NRF24L01 for another one - no good.

I then realized I wired the NRF24L01 to the Nano as if the Nano was a Micro Pro (as in the Micro Pro diagram - did I mention newbie?)

I fixed that but it still didn't work but...

I probably burned out the first 2 NRF24L01 boards because I then replaced with another brand new board on the new wiring and all is good,.

I think swapping NRF while still bad wiring just burned out additional boards.

I get it now - thank you.,

@mfalkvidd yes, thank you and everyone - I am all fixed and working now.
I am giving 3.3v to the radio with a separate voltage regulator.