"Network is down" error on liveboot/fresh install

[coatmaker618]

I had an OPNsense install that was working until I accidentally uploaded a bad config and did a reset instead of a restore (that was the day I learned a reset deletes your local backups, whoops!).  As I tried to recover I ran into a weird problem where OPNsense states that my interface is down & I cannot ping anything from it (see attached photo) or ping it or access the webgui -- which is the current problem that I am struggling with.

I have tried a factory reset, even going so far as to try and boot from the live boot media.  Unfortunately I always get the same "ping: sendto: Network is down" error.

I was suspecting it was a driver issue and tried booting from the live image. I tried the most recent (as of today) and it did the exact same thing. When I tried the live image I originally used for the previously functional install (hoping that rolling back might fix the driver issue), I fatfingered the the interfaces (getting them backwards) and got a VERY interesting result -- the interface that was previously down is now getting DHCP just by being called a WAN instead of LAN.  What is going on here, I'm totally at a loss! And how do I get past the "network is down" error to a usable interface/network?

Please let me know if there's any other information that would be helpful for me to provide about the system to get it working again!

Notes:
1. I have photos (literally photos of the screen since it's all terminal) but cannot get them small enough to post, any suggestions are welcome if thhey would be helpful in troubleshooting.
2. This router is not hooked up to the actual internet (as the interfaces are being problematic), so security concerns while I'm testing are minimal.
3. I am using a NIC for these interfaces, but they do show in the list of interfaces so I assume that means the drivers are correct?