i realized later that most of those disappearing Now cursor issues were resolved back in X1. So I'm thinking promidi was on the right track, but...
There are two ways to lock scrolling, and they operate independently. One is to enable the keyboard scroll lock, and the other is to click on a clip with Left Click Locks Scroll" enabled in the track view Options > Click Behavior. In order to unlock the latter, you have to click in an empty area of the track view (i.e. in an empty track or below the last track) or in the timeline.