Since I had a case open with support, I passed along the details of extracting the contents of the cab file and adding them to a zip file and installing the solution again.
They did follow up and asked a few questions. They seemed to imply this might not work 100% of the time but I don’t have more details on what that means.
They said they would continue experimenting, but my case is closed as we were able to resolve our problem. If you haven’t done so already, I would suggest opening a ticket with support.
Update on Exporting/Importing App Studio - All of our custom dashboards that were brought in from E10 and had the Kinetic App created via Dashboard Maintenance were all called BASE but are not marked as system. The Import of App Studio does not allow import of BASE - generates error even though not marked as System. Created a new custom layer for import and confirmed has mappings - but comes in blank when imported. Have open case with Support - pending. BUT - Solution Workbench works as long as add the Kinetic App Only and exclude the custom layer. As soon as the custom layer is included in Sol WB the App Studio mappings in Base and Custom are all blank. We are all browser as of going Live 10 months ago and converted all Dashboards using Dashboard Maint at that time. So for now Solution Workbench is the way to go rather than Export/Import.