Creating custom search results pages in SharePoint Online

I believe I figured it out.  In the code I pasted I did have the the "promotedResults" section separate from the "hasPrimaryorSecondaryResults" section, however they were contained within the same DIV.  I moved the the promoted results to it's own DIV and viola, promoted results started displaying even if there are no primary or seconday results.

Does not work:

 <div class="template_root">
        {{#if @root.promotedResults}}
            {{#each @root.promotedResults as |promotedResult|}}
            <div class="bnf-container">
                <div class="bnf-heroFrame">
                    <div class="bnf-heroColumn">
                        <div class="bnf-bookmarkContent">
                            <a class="bnf-href" href="{{Url}}">{{Title}}</a><br />
                        </div>
                        <div>
                            <a class="bnf-url" href="{{Url}}">{{Url}}</a>
                        </div>
                    </div>
               </div>
            </div>
            {{/each}}
        {{/if}}        
        
        {{#if @root.hasPrimaryOrSecondaryResults}}
            <div class="template_defaultCard">
                <div class="document-card-container">
                    {{#each data.items as |item|}}
                        <div class="document-card-item">
                            {{#> resultTypes item=item}}
                            {{!-- The block below will be used as default item template if no result types matched --}}
                            {{#eq item.contentclass 'STS_ListItem_851'}}
                            <span>No related news found</span>
                            {{else}}
                            <p>
                            <a class='bnf-href' href="{{getUrl item}}">{{slot item @root.slots.Title}}</a><br />
                            {{Path}}<br />
                            </p>
                            <!--pnp-document-card data-item="{{JSONstringify item}}" data-fields-configuration="{{JSONstringify @root.documentCardFields}}" data-enable-preview="{{@root.enablePreview}}" data-show-file-icon="{{@root.showFileIcon}}" data-is-compact="{{@root.isCompact}}"></pnp-document-card-->
                            
                            
                            {{/eq}}
                            {{/resultTypes}}
                        </div>
                    {{/each}}
                </div>
            </div>

Does work

    <div class="template_root">
        {{#if @root.promotedResults}}
            {{#each @root.promotedResults as |promotedResult|}}
            <div class="bnf-container">
                <div class="bnf-heroFrame">
                    <div class="bnf-heroColumn">
                        <div class="bnf-bookmarkContent">
                            <a class="bnf-href" href="{{Url}}">{{Title}}</a><br />
                        </div>
                        <div>
                            <a class="bnf-url" href="{{Url}}">{{Url}}</a>
                        </div>
                    </div>
               </div>
            </div>
            {{/each}}
        {{/if}} 
    </div>

     <div class="template_root">    
        {{#if @root.hasPrimaryOrSecondaryResults}}
            <div class="template_defaultCard">
                <div class="document-card-container">
                    {{#each data.items as |item|}}
                        <div class="document-card-item">
                            {{#> resultTypes item=item}}
                            {{!-- The block below will be used as default item template if no result types matched --}}
                            {{#eq item.contentclass 'STS_ListItem_851'}}
                            <span>No related news found</span>
                            {{else}}
                            <p>
                            <a class='bnf-href' href="{{getUrl item}}">{{slot item @root.slots.Title}}</a><br />
                            {{Path}}<br />
                            </p>
                            <!--pnp-document-card data-item="{{JSONstringify item}}" data-fields-configuration="{{JSONstringify @root.documentCardFields}}" data-enable-preview="{{@root.enablePreview}}" data-show-file-icon="{{@root.showFileIcon}}" data-is-compact="{{@root.isCompact}}"></pnp-document-card-->
                            
                            
                            {{/eq}}
                            {{/resultTypes}}
                        </div>
                    {{/each}}
                </div>
            </div>
{{#if @root.paging.showPaging}}
                <pnp-pagination data-total-items="{{@root.paging.totalItemsCount}}"
                                data-hide-first-last-pages="{{@root.paging.hideFirstLastPages}}"
                                data-hide-disabled="{{@root.paging.hideDisabled}}"
                                data-hide-navigation="{{@root.paging.hideNavigation}}"
                                data-range="{{@root.paging.pagingRange}}"
                                data-items-count-per-page="{{@root.paging.itemsCountPerPage}}"
                                data-current-page-number="{{@root.paging.currentPageNumber}}">
                </pnp-pagination>
            {{/if}}
            {{else}}
            {{#unless showBlank}}
        
            {{/unless}}
        {{/if}}

    </div>