Greybeard

Its a bit difficult to answer without seeing the original image file. Where did you focus? Is that point sharp? Or is the entire image (including the point of focus) soft?

Interesting - sounds like you've found the reason for the discrepancy - I guess the SSD drive option is new to FujiFilm and they don't have it quite right yet

Did you change the cards between days? did you take out the cards between days? did you use the same cards for the entire trip (and both cards in the same slot i.e. not switch cards between slots)? Are both raw and jpeg images on both cards for all images? (Not that I have an answer but looking for something that changed between days)

The usual recommendation is to completely initialize all the settings and see if that fixes it.

M mode on the back of the camera controls focus - aperture priority is for exposure. Maybe I'm missing something - the distance scale isn't going to be affected by your exposure setting (aperture priority). If you change from manual to auto focus and you still want the distance to show you will need to go into the custom display settings in the screen setup menu and check the appropriate setting. As you have the camera why not try it?

Either way should work - both methods allow you to set aperture. (I'm assuming when you say M mode you mean the exposure mode M and not the focus mode M). (I'm also assuming when you say zone focus you mean the technique of setting focus at a specific distance rather then using the AF Mode of Zone).

Auto mode perhaps

Digital image Stabilization

I have the latest software on my iPhone and latest firmware on the camera - image transfer works but very slow for raw files. I always use a card reader to transfer files which seems convenient and very fast.

That sounds correct - I think all recent non PASM cameras work this way allowing you to fine tune a selected shutter speed - its the same with my X100VI

Hmm - I don't seem to be able to replicate it with my camera

Half press the shutter button (with shutter AE set to ON)

That doesn't sound correct - how are you looking at the EXIF? Maybe you can share an image file with EXIF so that we can diagnose the problem.

A film simulation is just one part of the recipe. If you have a recipe selected and change the film simulation none of the other settings within that recipe will change. It would be the same as Grain Effect for example - you could select a recipe and change Grain Effect - nothing else within the recipe with change. You can change the recipe back to "nothing selected" before you change film simulation and the last used recipe settings won't be carried over.

SCREEN SET-UP > AUTOROTATE PB Set to ON