Validation Errors - Stuck in an endless cycle

In response to my question (Am I overcomplicating this?), the answer is YES.  Instead of flattening the JSON Arrays into individual records, I have found you can use the map() function.  Not only does this work with arrays, but nested arrays.  

Here is a quick/simple example that shows that you can access the properties of the object in the array and map it to another value.

map(addresses,
    @(
        address1 = trim(#item.addressOne),
        address2 = trim(#item.addressTwo),
        city = trim(#item.city),
        state = upper(#item.state),
        zip = #item.zip
    )
)

Credit to the Microsoft team for their assistance on this issue.  I am still working with them to identify the root cause of the strange UX behavior.