Do all of you folks have this "download" folder in the bandlab asst folder? I don't and never did.

Are you looking here ( see the address bar in the screenshot) I get 2 folders. One with Capital B has the Assistant installer the other has the Download folder which is empty. 

Mine loaded up perfect "right out of the box". I always have to mess with the plugin mgr to have it find all my plugs but had to do same in SPLAT.

All good here too, except as a few others have said, Bandlab Assistant remained up with 'Installing' on it long after the update had installed. 

"...we were told by Celemony that installing the Melodyne Studio trial will not overwrite your existing install of Editor but it will just update the code. Your existing license should be intact. If this is not the case for you please provide more detail and let us know ASAP."
Good news. Thank you.