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A low number of comments usually means a fairly easy puzzle in which solvers have had no trouble discovering and admiring the endgame.

But not for me! I still have no entries for 2, 4, 18, 20N, 21, 23 or 26 - and in spite of the assurance in this thread that answers that overrun the edge of the grid do not include clashes, I have three that certainly do (e,g. 10). Nor do I see how cells containing a two-letter clash can identify a thematic item.

I don't know where I'm going wrong but it's depressing to know that so many others have romped home.

I don't think anyone romped home on this but, after making a mess of the grid, changed horses in mid-stream. That meant reassessing some 'certainties' for me (happy to help with some of your outstanding clues, if you would like me to).

Wondering if there any gentle nudges towards the meaning of "internal thematic letters"? Appreciate that this might be regarded as tabu (sic) but it's frustratingly elusive given that I reckon I've figured everything else including the external thematics and the single letters needed to generate consistent highlighting patterns

Indeed, drxx. I thought this was one of the hardest, and best, of the year. Despite, or perhaps because of the unhelpful preamble, I liked the way the puzzle's secrets only gradually revealed themselves. There were precious few shortcuts

Cruncher, I think post #21 gives a hint

@quisling I had seen that post but as yet can't figure the common feature

As is often the case, quisling, I take a different view of a deliberately confusing preamble - I'm sure I must have mentioned in the past that I consider such tricks to be despicable (and they always spoil the solving process for me).
This could have a lot to do with me solving the puzzle in the body of the Times newspaper for many decades, I'm sure it's much more 'fun' when another grid can be knocked off in seconds.

Thanks drxx for the offer of help. One of my missing answers has now been provided by what was presumably a broad hint, but let's start with 10, in which my two-out-of-three 'certainties' clash with the last two in 9. Oddly enough, 9 is also implicated in a clash that apparently shouldn't happen at its intersection with 42N.

Try looking at it the other way, cruncher - look for what you'd consider to be the external, and see why it must be ignored.

10 - the flower isn't the usual (or the river, in the usual sense). Latin for... (reversed).