Jerry,
All opinions here are valid in their own context / in their own specific situations....but, as I'm local to you, I hope my opinions here might have been ever so slightly more impactful?
With that in mind, I'm going to go out on a limb here and make some blanket statements (with no intention of arrogance)...
Some of this new post of yours, is great news to many of us!
(although, spending $600 and not getting your product that you ordered is not great, actually getting your money back on a fairly inefficient / poor performing antenna....AND the ability to actually install a better/more efficient/more effective antenna, for ~ 10% - 20% of the cost of this MFJ piece of junk, is great!)
I'm about to throw in the towel regarding the MFJ-1786 I ordered last October that was supposed to be shipped in December. I paid up front for it. With short term CDs over 4%, HRO is profiting off the interest on my nearly $600 payment. The passing of 4 months with no delivery date in sight has given me time to consider other ham hobby options.
To be clear, as I have said/written for decades, "anything metallic" can be an antenna, and can "work" to some degree...it's all a compromise!

The basic calculations come down to:
a) what you want to do / who you want to communicate with (as well as on what bands, what time of day/year, etc.)
b) how much room do you have for an antenna / HOA restrictions
c) how much money can you spend on antennas (remember the old 90/10 or 80/20 rule!)
And, taking into consideration much of what you've written over the past year (your townhome, HOA issues, RFI, etc.), we can it seems clear to all of us that:
---- a simple antenna (even small/inefficient) OUTSIDE and in the clear will work better than one inside/in attic...
---- a simple outdoor wire antenna (like a 40m inverted-v), even at low / unobtrusive height, would be a great antenna for you...
---- if you require more "multi-band" operations, a remote-tuner-fed doublet (based on the simple dipole / inverted-v just mentioned, would be an excellent choice for you.
(this is especially true with your having an IC-7100, which allows simple, seamless, easy-peasy multi-band operation of an Icom AH-4 remote tuner)And....
And, Jerry, I'm going for it here....
Forget most of the BS propagated here abouts.....and get an AH-4 (and some coax and control wire) and some scrap wire.....throw it up just about anywhere, at any height and in any configuration you can manage....one wire to the AH-4's "antenna terminal" and one wire to the AH-4's "ground terminal", and you have a remote-tuner-fed-doublet/dipole....easy-peasy!
I know I should have been this insistent last year, but you seemed so strident in pushing back against anything that was suggested here if it didn't get the approval of those in EMCOMM, I thought better of being too forceful.
But, at this point, I figure you're more open about things?
So...
So, scarp the BS ideas, and actually do what I've been recommending for decades.

You know it was in the early 1970's that I was taught a rather simple ham radio rule-of-thumb:
"If all else fails, try a dipole....or save yourself the headaches, and just try a dipole first!" And...
And, if you combine the above with my many decades of personal, hands-on, experience with remote-tuner-fed antennas, perhaps you'll feel confident that my advice here is sound?
If not, no worries....but, darn Jerry....now that you've seen the errors of the BS / crappy antennas, why not try something that actually works?
Just saying....now's the time!

As for DMR....not my cup-of-tea....but, I do know that like D-star, the DMR and D-star activity in Ocala is very limited and populated by some fairly narrow-focused folks (most socialable types will get bored pretty quickly with Ocala "digital" operations)....
I have an Anytone 878 DMR HT expected in the mail tomorrow. DMRs are complex enough to occupy me for some time and will satisfy the antenna-restricted aspect of the hobby for the forseeable future.
BTW, on a final note on HF antennas.....please remember that your receive S/N is the most important aspect! (and, while my focus above was more "transmit" centric, the fact is if you put together a remote-tuner-fed-doublet/dipole and use a good CMC/Current balun on the coax, right at the AH-4 tuner, you'll reduce much of the "antenna system caused - RFI")
Okay, there is more (a LOT more), but I really have to go...
Take care my friend!
73,
John, KA4WJA
P.S. I'm sure some here will argue in favor of "small transmit loops", etc...saying I don't know what I'm talking about....but, please have a close read guys....I AM upfront saying that ANYTHING can work....it's all a matter of degree!

Oh, and I'm also clear that I don't think varying opinions are a bad thing.