279, I had just updated from 271 before posting. Also, I'd hazard a guess that it has something to do with BALO: I never had any problems in my earlier installs when I didn't use BALO.
edit: just checked with BALO and lock times turned off. Same result - it's not scanning ESMs.
The plot thickens.
It seems that Bash will load my ESMs... just not Cobl Main.esm. I experimented with renaming it, on the off chance... but no difference. And it's not just with import names; I also tested tweak names and darnify books. Neither makes any patch changes that include cobl main. This is with Bash 271 and 279.
I'm using Cobl v1.73. I'll try rolling back and see if there's any difference.
edit: no difference when rolling back Cobl a few versions. It's not accessing cobl main.esm at all: things like alchemical catalogs and cobl exhaust are not being processed even when ticked in the rebuild patch dialog.
And something's wonky with accessing Oblivion.esm - tweak names (the one that prefixes body part and weapon type codes) doesn't process Oblivion.esm entries (and yes, I had all the sub-options ticked).
Bashed Patch 1.esp? Overview? Tweak NamesOverviewDate/Time? 05 Mar 10 4:02:00 PM Active ModsTweak Names? Armor: 0 ? Clothes: 0 ? Notes and Scrolls: 0 ? Potions: 0 ? Spells: 0 ? Weapons: 0
Active Mod Files:00 Oblivion.esm01 Cobl Main.esm [Version 1.70]