The empty hls directory was a file permission problem. (Maybe for the AWS instance, give the ems daemon read/write access to /var/www …)
Once I figured out the console (service evostreamms start_console, not run_console_ems.sh) that helped.
I was also able to get all my other big questions answered.
FYI, deleting hls streams from the web ui doesn’t seem to work, as selecting the hls stream does not update the "stream to delete".
Thanks,
– Brad