I think I'm getting good at "fixing" my own problems, now if I just cut down on actually creating the problems.
I think I know what happened (not sure why it happened), and I think I fixed it....
So, when you install MC on a PC, towards the end of the install you can set file associations, in that list, at least on my PC, FLAC was not an option.
I assumed that meant that native FLAC support wasn't installed so I would need to install the FLAC plugins, which is what I originally did which caused the error message I was getting.
So, I uninstalled everything and started over from scratch.
During the 2nd install, again noticed that FLAC wasn't an option for file associations toward the end of the install.
Started the program up after installation, went to Tools, Options, File Associations, and what do you know, FLAC was there as something that could be selected for file association. Selected it and everything seems to be fine.
Question would be is it just my installation that for some reason wasn't showing FLAC as a file assocation option during installation, or has the installation routine not been updated to reflect FLAC?
Anyway, looks like I am fine for now, until I break something else.