Finally broke down and bought a (used) 3D Connexion Space Navigator (compact).
Worked perfectly w/ OpenSCAD by just plugging it in, apparently it will work well w/:
(which worked well enough w/ my stylus/trackpad that I was able to complete the tutorial, but which will require installing the driver to use the Space Navigator w/ it)
This isn't news, but I am still plugging along with Shapr3D, which I've subscribed to for about the last 3 years. I also own copies of Moment of Inspiration V4 (I think it is) and TurboCAD 2019. All served during their time, but my reason for migrating to Shapr3D is that they seem to have an aggressive update program with significant improvements issued fairly frequently (by which I mean slightly more frequently than annually or biannually). I know that @willadams doesn't like subscription software, so I'm not trying to sell him or anyone else on Shapr; I'm saying that I use it and am happy with its UX and capabilities.
I come from a wire frame experience base, so the modern solid modeling techniques took me a little while to get used to, but Shapr is pretty easy to learn and works pretty well...