SDDM v0.2 (as would GDM, conscripting any or all of ttys 1-3) conflicts with workflow here, so I've been slowly getting it purged it from all installations, which is how I found this problem. I wasn't able to find any way to get SDDM back up on tty7+, so by now I have maybe about 2 or 3 left among Slowrolls and TWs I will try when I can identify which. Most of those purged got KDM3, TDM or LightDM as a replacement. I haven't had any of them fail to launch startplasma-x11.