I guess I'm experiencing a foggy brain-fart... my replacement of front pads with the 1/2" of uneven wear on my n/a must have accompanied a replacement rotor that I didn't remember, all this time I thought n/a - xr2 pads were different. Thank you Chrispoe for a good teaching explanation.
So, ripping back to the start of this thread...YES, Merlin, the smaller rotors should be replaced with the correct size, ignore my floundering please...