Final question, if nobody can answer or do not want to, can anyone tell me how to install LibreELEC on the USB hard drive? That way I can at least eliminate the extra USB flash drive. I can't find any information on the forums or Internet on how to to this.
It's not about not want to answer. Sometimes there are just no answer possible. I can't fix problems I can't reproduce. I can't even fix problems I can reproduce if they are some deep imx6 related stuff. This platform just newer got much attention from devs (there are only few who has knowledge about it - and I'm not one of them). I wish I could make perfect 100% working image but I think this will newer happen. I think 7.0.2 was very close to that (for some).
And about installing to USB: You still need SD card to boot from. The procedure is the same as for RPi (boot from sd card, system from usb).