THANK YOU @dankcushions !
Your pointer was half of the solution so let me write the other half in case anyone else searches for this answer.
Setting the resolution in the retroarch Options menu did not have any effect until I also turned on "Alternate render method" in the same menu. At that point all resolution changes took immediate effect (upon leaving the retroarch UI) and now this all works perfectly.
I will write up the rest of my method to launch rom-less system soon!
Thanks again.