Thanks for corrections. I'm starting x after booting into console, with the command startx which uses a $HOME/.xinitrc that was just saying exec openbox-session.
As for wpa_supplicant, yes, I found that out when I tried it.
I'm not sure why this doesn't work with a hidden network, but as I said not a big deal. The bigger issue was that the mouse doesn't work well, if at all, and even though I almost never use it, that was annoying. But, I definitely didn't have ownership of /dev/drm0. It was showing, and shows after reboot, crw root wheel. After starting X, again with a simple startx command it's the same, showing 600 root and wheel.
As I don't know if I'll use wireless or wired, I generally don't create hostname.whatever files. When the network is unhidden, a simple ifconfig nwid mynetwork wpakey mykey works without problem.
Thanks for the input. Now, if only the mouse were as giving....meh, sounded funnier in my head, supposed to be some sort joke about input devices.