Indeed, secure mode was turned off. I don't know why. Quite possibly I had turned it off at some point when I was just poking around. Or maybe it reset when I updated with the beta, which is not the standard update method for the Pono fork. Anyhow, All the optis are set to secure now. I won't have a chance until this weekend to see if it solves the issue for me. Even if I have some slightly wonky disks, ripped too fast, or have a slightly wonky drive, secure mode will probably correct for a lot of that, whatever that is.
Thaks all for taking the time to respond.