I'm so discouraged....and looking for an alternate solution. I was even considering going back to using risers on  a known board. Then, I found the Onda B250 BTC-D8P is available in the US :

https://www.waikey.com/item/onda-b250-btc-d8p-8-pci-e-slots-motherboard-8-gpu-mining/

Not sure if I should trust this site.