Your instincts were correct...about 90%, but that's good enough for me!
I say partially, because the issue is twofold - concerning not just the AV but MO itself. I've discovered MO will - without any prompting or coaxing - automatically convert the SKSE path to "stylesheets" upon closing the program after the first run. Why it does that is anyone's guess, and it really threw off my troubleshooting. So in summary, this is what I would've had to do to out of the gate to mitigate this problem:
Install MO/close it/add an exception in AV/open MO, install SKSE/close it/open MO, manually configure SKSE path/close it/open MO, verify path and functionality/mod and play game.
If anyone experiencing the same issue sees this thread down the line, it should be noted this link is helpful as well.
Dub, thanks again - I'd give reps but since that's not doable, credit where it's due will have to suffice.
