OK! Turned out my conference ended a bit earlier than I thought so while resting up in a Barcelona hotel room, I figured out utilsplugin2, it's Split Object tool, and JOSM's own Improve Way Accuracy mode. This was much quicker to correct some ways and paths crossing over that I'd done. And you're right, it is faster. Just... learning curves are a thing. 

If you have a list of QA issues where I've left some early overlaps just send me the list and I'll get them knocked out and fixed. 