I tried completely removing the product again using the Avast removal tool in Safe Mode, got back into Windows and cleaned out any and all possible remnants of Avast that could possibly have been left behind, rebooted. I reinstalled the product with everything being the default settings, but still... the product GUI will not launch at all after I reboot the system after installing it. The log file I attached before just keeps getting larger and larger with every attempt to bring the UI up.
At this point, Avast is completely useless to me. I have to be honest, the complete lack of a way to get actual support from this company has me thinking about using another antivirus software product.