I spoke to the tech at the dealer, a good guy with several years experience. He's never encountered a Spyder doing what mine is doing. I'll take it to them next week. He'll contact BRP for advice before proceeding.
Basically my current starting procedure is clear safety message, cycle display to Hr, hold down headlight override and press M switch, release and press starter. VROOOM! Anything less than that and the fuel pump cycles and safety message resets, ad infinitum Once bike has started, it will restart normally till off long enough for safety message to reset, then it's back to goofy mode again.
I'll report back what BRP and the tech find out.