Hi Mike,
I'm learning new things too. Most of the html I know is more than decade old, and I only begrudgingly started using CSS (cascading style sheets) this year. I've spent most of my free-time the past ten years working with Flash, multi-track audio, and video. I've got probably 50 or 60 programs I use on a regular basis, so I just don't have time to be an expert on everything. The only HTML you really need to know for book formatting is fairly simple though, and I only use a couple of internal CSS styles, (one of which is for placing page breaks). That's really about all you need. But I'd encourage you to learn some HTML. Word generates some pretty bad, and overly-complicated, HTML code, and I've spent a lot of time fixing bad code from Gutenberg downloads by people who probably used Word to make their files.
It might help if you'd invest in a WYSIWYG type of HTML editor to get you started. It will generate most of the html code for you and then you can look at the code after making changes to the text here and there and see what it did to get an idea of what HTML is all about. I would estimate that 70% of everyone working in HTML started that way with something like Dreamweaver or Frontpage years ago. Then after that, they might graduate to a different HTML editor that's more text/code based once they get the hang of HTML. A lot of people stick with something like Dreamweaver for life though. It makes things much easier in my opinion. There are some free HTML WYSIWYG editors out there that work pretty well like SeaMonkey and Amaya.
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"I've been told not to use multiple hard returns to space chapter headings down from the top of the page or to add space between the chapter heading and the first paragraph of the chapter."
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There's no point in having spaces before the chapter title if you have a page break just before it (although I always have just one paragraph break). This is probably why some of those books you've encountered that have a blank page now and then before the start of a new chapter get like that--because someone had 10 or 15 paragraph breaks before the chapter start plus a page break. But I generally have two paragraph breaks after the chapter title before the first paragraph starts. That's just more pleasing to the eye I think.
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"I can't prevent situations in which a few words or lines of text at the end of a chapter appear at the top of the last page, leaving mostly blank space before the beginning of the next chapter."
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Hmm… maybe my brain is firing blanks today, but I don't understand the problem with that. Isn't that the way hard copy books are too?