defining MY_BAUD_RATE as 57600 in the sketch did the trick... web editor serial monitor working fine now with debug enabled. thanks for the help @mfalkvidd @Yveaux !

Thank you @fabyte ! I had mostly figured out the persistence file thing... had to jump through some hoops to change from pickle to json so I could edit it -- in the process cleared all my devices, but now I am set up to remove devices easily as i test and build out. Did not think about the database file... will check that out too. Appreciate the help!