The log files that I included for the satoshi-port fix were unintentionally misleading.
Specifically:
2018-11-14 01:34:40 (WARNING) -- SDM.pyc:396 - Spawning DB with command: ./ArmoryDB.exe --db-type="DB_FULL" --cookie --satoshi-datadir="F:\bitcoin_data_dir\blocks" --datadir="G:\armory_data" --dbdir="G:\armory_data/database_dir --debug --satoshi-port=8500"
It doesn't actually pass the satoshi-port parameter at all to the db. The dbdir parameter is actually merged together for some reason. I suspect windows decided to "help".
It ended up creating a directory with the name "database_dir --debug --satoshi-port=8500".
The parameter passed to the database is:
--dbdir="G:\armory_data/database_dir --debug --satoshi-port=8500"
I don't think I included the quotes when invoking things, but I may have messed up a copy/paste.
The end result is that the python code doesn't actually forward the parameter to the database process.