Update to the above. I have VEP6 (latest version) running fine again. For anyone that decides to rollback to VEP6 on a mac, watch out for the following thing:
On VEP7 they renamed the name of the VEP server app bundle to remove the words "(64-bit)" from the app bundle name. Previously under VEP6, this was the name used for the 32bit server.
So after I rolled back to VEP6, I tried to launch it by using the icon in my dockbar, which had been configured for VEP7 to point to the app bundle WITHOUT the words "(64-bit)". After rolling back, the dock icon was now pointing to the 32bit server and I didn't realize it.
When I tried to load a viframe into the 32bit server, it was crashing, who knows why. But after correcting the dock icon to point to the VEP6 bundle with "(64-bit)" in the app bundle name, it now seems to be humming along fine....