Oops, yet another brainfart. When I swapped the pins back to Pin2 5V and Pin3 Pot, I forgot I had the anode of the display (pin 15) linked to pin 3 (as I originally thought Pin 3 was Vcc. So in actuality, I was placing a voltage divider in the LED (backlight) circuit.
I am confident now that Pin 2 is Vcc as all HD44780's are. However, now I find that contrast does nothing at all if I wire everything up as correct. This is the main reason I swapped pin 2 and pin 3 originally. I prefer the way it's set up now anyway. I would much rather control the backlight anyway. Here's my hookup with contrast NOT working.
Pin 1 - Ground
Pin 2 - Vcc (+5V)
Pin 3 - Vo (wiper of potentiometer to pin 3 with one side to 5V and other side to ground).
Pin 15 - +5V through 330 ohm resistor
Pin 16 - Ground