Thank you for the answers thus far. I agree with your responses backed up by a white paper on HP's site.
I am, thus far, not happy with the solution provided by HP Elite support(David), who is sending me the 8.1 Pro restore media. He claims there is a path to the free Windows 10 upgrade still out there somewhere!? That is an elusive answer, and I want to find a conclusive statement to back that up, from someone of authority.
Being that the reason I had to have a new board and processor installed because of the latest (since pulled) BIOS update for my system, rushed to release by Intel and provided by HP, I think they both are responsible for the costs, even my inconvenience, for this. I am not done with this by any means.