[marst]

It's looking as if ADE is the only (quick) solution for now. I'd hoped that with the Kobo desktop program running and with the ereader connected (as recommended in some earlier comments in this thread), I'd be able to sync both of them pretty quickly and not have to rely on the Kobo's lousy wifi connectivity.

The sync still wouldn't occur. That wheel just spins and spins. After I cancel the sync I notice that there's at least one new book cover showing in My Books on the Kobo device—but the book isn't downloaded yet. A sync of the desktop program happens very fast. But the ereader device itself just won't play along. Baffling. So it's ADE for now, but I'm expecting I'll keep running into the problem of those particular books not supporting the Kobo's "flush left/rag right" control for whatever reason. Clearly the Calibre/DeDRM solution is the best approach...though I might end up just letting the Kobo go—I've put in way more time trying to get it to behave than should have been necessary. Boox, perhaps. I'll have to find out if Boox's native e-reader software has good enough typographic controls. There are reviews that dive into all the bells and whistles, the drawing features, etc., but not much about using the thing as an e-reader. Anyway, thanks to all who replied in this thread. I appreciate the time you put into those replies.