Andrew, thanks for your comment; sorry for delay in responding.
I am familiar with clearing styles as you suggest; our problem is that the definitions get whacked, e.g., the bullets all disappear, requiring reapplication of, usually, the bullets and list style (to reconnect the styles with the list style) from the template.
Anyway, I am at this point following directives rather than trying to argue further. I don't think the problems will disappear, but who knows? Maybe I'll be proven wrong.