Yes! That’s exactly it, and I was afraid it wasn’t possible. Looks like I would have to alter the theme’s buddypress components significantly, and I don’t have the skills for that. 🙁
Regarding the other solution, Can I have buddypress as the main and the installation in the root be a subsite? Do I just not display anthing that is not to do with community?
Thinking about your suggestion of overriding BP behavior on a child theme – I am just not developer enough to build a theme and construct it differently. I could have the templates for child theme and another BP theme side by side and I still wouldn’t know what to scavenge!