This thread should have been titled "Need qualified room acoustician to work for free."
I was not looking for free but I was looking for a "guarantee" that my "glare" problem would be resolved and no company would give me that. I was willing to spend the $6K to $10k (the two estimates I got) to get there but had no intention of spending that kind of money and being no better off than before I started.
And by just trying some different things, I have made huge progress and my out of pocket expenses have been SUBSTANTIALLY less than those numbers. Ethan's idea of absorption on the ceiling seems to have really tamed things down which was an idea given to me by GIK Acoustics (for which they were paid for by me purchasing additional room treatment products).
I have not measured it yet but I'm sure my RT60 is still way too low. Once I get the "glare" issue completely fixed, I can begin to add back more reflective and/or diffusive treatment to liven things up a bit.