@OwenChief,
That’s my bad – you wrote a great description and I skipped right over it. It’s very late for me 
Try the following:
- Launch Brave by shortcut with
--disable-gpuflag - Go to
Menu --> Settings --> Advanced --> System --> Hardware Acceleration - The option should be off – switch it on, do not relaunch when prompted.
- Return to the shortcut you used in step 1 and remove the
--disable-gpuflag - Now go back to the
Hardware Accelerationsetting and toggle it off - Relaunch the browser when prompted.
I believe the browser should launch with the last state the flag was in, even if it had already been changed and required a relaunch. Let me know if this works for you.