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After seemingly completing about 85% of the grid I've just realised that in my foolishness I misinterpreted the preamble, taking it to mean there was one instance of one letter dropped down to the bottom row per column, rather than each instance of that letter. As a result I've realised that my 10th column is impossible as filled, as the dropped letter still appears elsewhere in the column. I'm not sure how to tackle this, given I was pretty confident about the wordplay in the relevant 17d and I don't see any way to fulfil the preamble with what I have.

Would someone sanity-check what I have for a couple relevant clues?

17d. Time to withdraw from reserved holiday destination? (6)
For this I have an answer with 7 letters referring to a generic example of what is defined by the end of the clue (the wordplay works tidily), with the third letter dropped down.

38ac. German philosopher's hesitance about housing unknown national (11)
I have an answer here based on the beginning of the clue, essentially an adjective constructed from a proper noun. To be honest I don't really know how the wordplay works, this was just the only answer I could think of that fit an appropriate definition.

At least something about this must be wrong, because as is, the dropped letter from 17d conflicts with what's in that column for 38ac.

Chrisremo, you are still misunderstanding the preamble, I’m afraid. Just one clue per column has all instances of a particular letter dropped. The other cells in the column can still contain that letter. So there is no conflict between the letter you have dropped from 17d and the tenth letter of 38a being one and the same

Good lord, I need my brain examined. My grid is in decent condition, but I'm not sure that's worth what this suggests about my reading comprehension. Thanks much for the reply!

chrisremo, I am certain that virtually all of us have dropped similar large clangers. Once the blinkers go on it is often impossible to take them off!! 😒

I've enjoyed this, and have all the thematic stuff but have a few gaps in SE corner, namely in 35a Church music rector recalled (4) and 29d Paunch spread to engulf this writer (5) I believe both are straight clues.
Any tips welcome.

Lumen, the definition is the first word. You need a type of music (modern stuff,not my favourite genre), reversed, after the 'rector'.

Church refers to a world capital where a major branch of Christianity is headquartered. Music refers to a genre to which (say) Panic at the DIsco or My Chemical Romance belong.

Thanks both, impressed by your musical knowledge.
I'll ponder the other one now I have an extra crosser.

Lumen, 29d is not a common word, but I believe I have seen it before in the Listener.

Still not complete on 29.
I may have 37a wrong, can't parse, someone earlier said 37 was a nice clue so suspect I'm missing something! I have a definition connected to from the east, is that right, or is from the east wordplay for reverse?