Okay, here is what I did:
I cut a strip of ⅛" thick soft, red felt that would fit under at the arse end of the tremolo plate on top of the guitar body pushed up to the spring block, no more. I depressed the wiggle stick and shoved the felt under there on top of a defunct credit card, traced the edge, and cut it out. Then I applied glue to the top of the felt, put the felt on top of the credit card, and gently pushed it to the spring block and released the wiggle stick, clamping everything down for the glue to cure. The trem plate on the core guitar was only about 3/32" above the top of the guitar on both the treble and bass sides. Functionally, the felt cushions the underside of the tremolo plate just enough to keep the guitar in tune when dropping low E to D. That's it. A strip of soft red felt glued as mentioned below, felt like you'd find on a felt hat brim. It works for me, it's easy to do and undo, and with no damage to the guitar.
I set up my backup custom 24 SE with 10's, so I had to adjust the tremolo springs (of course) and lower the bridge. I got the action to exactly match my core guitar without touching the truss rod. What a GREAT Korean-build series guitar!
The fix worked on my 2001 Custom 22 for two reasons: First, the underside of the tremolo plate was really close to the top of the guitar (3/32") on both the bass and treble sides, and secondly, it has locking tuners. I applied the same fix to the SE but it's not going to work as effectively until I get locking tuners on it. I lowered the tailpiece as much as I dare but it's still up about 5/32" above the wood on the treble side and about right on the bass side. So, it ALMOST works as well, but not quite. Locking tuners are a big factor in the equation along with the thickness of the felt. The adhesive I used to adhere the felt to the underside of the tailpiece is a Locktite product, "Vinyl, Fabric & Plastic flexible Adhesive".
But, the most revealing aspect of this experiment is that I got the action on my SE to match my core guitar. I could not be happier. The difference between the 58/15 clone pickups and the core guitar will not be an issue. They are a tad brighter and lack a bit of the mids, but I don't care. The two fingerboards feel the same, even with the difference in fingerboard radii and frets. I did add nickel covers to the pickups on the SE.
My 2017 Custom 24 CE is a real sweetie. Yes there are a lot of differences between the 2001 and it, but nothing serious serious if, like me, you're looking for a number two guitar. I can enumerate the differences if you like. Just let me know.
PRS RULES!
Hope this helps somebody. Happy New year!