And the verdict? Bad neutral safety switch. Car started working normally after I jumped the starter yesterday and then the next morning, same issue again. I wiggled the gear selector in Neutral this morning (again) just to double check and low and behold, it cranked which confirmed wonky NSS - even the reverse light came on in reverse so these switches can seem like they are acting normally but not always - in my case, I had both a bad ignition switch and a failing NSS at the same time - hope this helps someone else with a car acting similar -