That is what I did. I can still use an attached monitor to display the desk top. On boot both show the CLI as all the commands are run, just the PiTFT then goes blank. Well blank, all but the "-" in the upper left corner while monitor has the desk top.a totall fresh version of Stretch full. get it so it definitely boots to HDMI with desktop
I will try again tomorrow with the fresh version of stretch downloaded yesterday using the steps you posted earlier.
On second thought, that may be where I got it wrong. Could that setting be changed without a complete re-install?say NO to "Would you like the console to appear on the PiTFT display?"
and then YES to "Would you like the HDMI display to mirror to the PiTFT display?"