NOD32 looks to be fast, focused and highly configurable. I am a techie myself so I like the configurable part. And I don't mind paying for good protection. When I put on the google-fu looking for tech solutions I never know what kind of questionable sites I'm going to come across so I actually need above average protection.Only NOD32 is AV, the other two are anti-malware.
I use the free version of Malwarebytes so it only runs when I run it. NOD32 is always running.
I can't remember Defender ever giving a peep.
Defender built into Win 10 is AV AFAIK and disables itself when you install 3rd party AV. I think in this case the firewall will still be active IDK.
I closed the back doors during installation (I think) and the jury is still out on whether I'll just buy a 6th gen CPU and backtrack with my Win 7 Ultimate license but I'm going to give it the good ole college try.
Thank you for the suggestion.

X-Pup