OK, I'm an idiot.
A point of clarification for anyone who (like me) might misunderstand the above posts....
*DO NOT* physically replace the "original_uisettings.ini" file with one of your own; the patcher will simply overwrite it back to the default.
*DO* put your own master UI settings file (named as you see fit) in the EQ2 directory, and then edit the "eq2_recent.ini" file to point to it instead of to "original_uisettings.ini."
-- Darryl