1. The initial dummy select - doesn't that belong in a different method? Otherwise it would be getting created again, anyway, every time you call the method to refresh the grid with the newly selected data?

The initial select is not a dummy select. You need to SELECT ... INTO CURSOR READWRITE NOFILTER in the load of your form so you can bind the grid

2. You talk about the extra code necessary (presumably to "shape" the grid.) but where does the grid formatting, and field-to-grid column allocation happen, if you don't select the data in the order in which it should appear on the grid.

ZAPping the grid's recordSOurce foes not close it. So if you use the "safe select" method described in Andy's blog, the grid does not lose any formatting.