Finally found a block previewer, so you don’t have to guess what’s different about each [tagdiv] block:

https://demo.tagdiv.com/newspaper/flex-block/

OK, maybe I’ve answered my own question, in that I tried what I suggested and used one of the TagDiv widgets to create an “Editor’s Picks” widget.

However, while this was somewhat successful, my Editor’s Widget (which displays three most recent featured posts) displays the first post’s image as exceedingly large, rather than a thumbnail like the other two. (Your “predefined” widget displays all three as thumbnails).

Is this because I used the wrong kind of TagDiv widget? (Are the 25 TagDiv widgets different from each other? The info page is a bit vague on this question). Or is the one I used misconfigured in some way?

I’m a bit confused by footer template 1, Simion C. Would you be able to clarify how it works?

Are the “two predefined blocks and a categories block” fixed, and cannot be modified if I am using footer template 1?

If not, and I want to use, say, footer template 5 and define my own widgets, am I able to choose to use “Editor Picks” as a widget?

Disregard. I disabled some unnecessary plugins, and found that one of them had been suppressing the sidebars.

However, if you can tell me how to search this forum efficiently, I’d still welcome that.

E.