Seems to be a difference - anyone know where & why?
AdminBeforeItemEditCreate validates changes to my plugin's fields and picks up $params['Item']->status; as "entry_visibility". I'm figuring this is important for some reason because that is the only thing that changes when you 'Publish Now'.
PrependItemInsertTransact doesn't do anything yet.
AfterItemInsert looks for changes to my plugin's field and updates my plugin's table.

Problem is that when I change the visibility to published my plugin's table gets all the right info. When I use "Publish Now" it loses everything (records default values in the entry-related table).

3 more work nights then only 3 days before this is supposed to work is why I'm asking before trying to figure out on my own. Thanks!