I've been bathing it in Gunk brand penetrating oil for most of a week, and started the engine and got it good & hot. I used a box end 12mm/14mm (remember those? Box wrench on both ends, stepped 2mm at a time?). Anyway, I wanted a good solid connection and just tapped on the end of the wrench for a while with a small ratchet, to act as sort of a really gentle impact driver. Within about a minute, give or take, I noticed that the wrench had definitely turned a few degrees.
Back it out a bit, spray with oil, run it back in just a tad, back & forth (and listen to the grinding noise of crumbly rust being crushed in the threads -- yikes!).
Some of the inside bolts needed a ratchet, so I recalled the recent thread about dealing with these fasteners, and added some tapping. Must have looked like an idiot trying to communicate with the engine, or something, but it got the job done. Got all 8 backed out about three full turns.
The exhaust was too hot to proceed much further, so I went for a nice jaunt on the Bandit until it cooled off. Maybe soon I can finally determine the cause of the mystery noise that so many wrenches have pursued without success.