After all that has been said, would not it have been simpler just to fold a bad hand OOP pre flop and avoid all the drama?

checking the turn after min raising the flop is awful imo. The only play is bet/fold ott. Once you bet your repping Jx only, no one and I mean no one is raising ~250bb's more in this spot w/o a J after you bet again ott.

as played you have to fold, though I would be absolutely furious about it. What was your reasoning for checking?

I don't hate your flop raise as much as others, huge open raise pre/min raise flop, now bet turn. Your telling a somewhat consistent story up to this point, but once we check the turn it seems like we really had no idea what we were doing the whole way?

passive middle aged lady or pretty competent lady? She's seen you stack off twice with an over pair, your line screams AA/AK, why wouldn't she jam the nuts? You haven't shown the ability to fold this type of hand yet.

hands like this annoy me because it gives credence to the "fold pre camp" around here w/ anything speculative. But seriously you need to think hands all the way through, street by street, and if you can't consistently produce lines that make sense based on your position and range vs villains range, as much as it pains me to type this, you need to be folding pre in these spots.(I need a drink now!)