Change of Homepage Settings from "Latest Posts" to "Static Page" WILL NOT STICK

When I go to my Blog page (example.com/blog, page title: Blog) there is only the page title and description, no posts. On my homepage, on the other hand, there is a list of latest posts below the featured content grid. I looked everywhere in the settings for where to set my Blog page as my "posts" page to try and get posts to show there, and the only place I could find was in the Homepage Settings section of the customizer. So I change my homepage display settings from "Your latest posts" to "A static page", and then it lets me select the page Blog from the drop-down under "Posts page". The live preview of my homepage changes from displaying my latest posts to displaying the page title ("Home" - which, in and of itself, is annoyingly redundant; can I hide page titles on pages somehow?) and its description. HOWEVER, when I go to view my live site, Home still lists latest post excerpts, and Blog still shows only "Blog" and its short description; no posts. I've tried clearing my cache, logging out and back in, multiple changes and publishes... what am I doing wrong?? I REALLY don't want to reinstall the theme, as I've already had to do that once and I've just now gotten everything back to (mostly) the way I like it. Help?