Now, after installing chrome beta as recommended the wallet starts, yet does not work (Insight error).

Seriously. I need a simple wallet backup aes.json decryptor. I have the password, but the file can only be imported into the chrome extension wallet. Technically they are lost if the wallet does not work.
Insight error should be fixed Are you on Android?
You can try this:
https://github.com/bitpay/copay-recoveryAlthough we have never tried, but in theory it should work. We will look into forking this.