On a lark tried a new approach to getting the hood squeak sorted out. Fiddling with the spacers helped but did not eliminate the squeak.
I used a rubber mallet and *carefully* tapped the loop on the hood over 1/4inch toward the driver side. It had been very close to the passenger side of the catch mechanism. No more squeak for about a month now. I waited to post to see if it was really gone... YMMV.

Now if I could get the BCM box to stop rattling and find the wiring harness slap behind the guage cluster I'd be even more pleased.