tack:
Changing the fuse to 0xf7 for Full Swing Oscillator solved the UART0 issue for most, me included.
I substituted a resistor and a capacitor for a single bit in the low fuses - and it works.
So I'll try again:
Final Remark 2.0: Set the low fuses to 0xF7 (not 0xFF) to enable the Full Swing Oscillator.