So, what has me hysterical is the seeming random behavior. Sometimes it works, sometimes it does not. When it fails, the selected item is clearly visible on screen for the entire 60 second wait. Screenshots also show it's available all the time, and there is no consistency about which scenario will succeed or fail.
The problematic step is And I have elected to edit the "Graphic Designer" item,
One call to the stepDef looks like this :
@watch
Scenario: Verify field validation
WARNING: the "timeoutsImplicitWait" command will be depcrecated soon. Please use a different command in order to avoid failures in your test after updating WebdriverIO.
✔ Given I have opened the books list page : "http://localhost:3000/books"