Presence of Gmail "shortcut" suppresses Chrome browser notifications on MacOS

I was unable to get desktop Chrome browser notifications to work at all -- even after deleting the devices, cookies, preferences, you name it -- until I removed the Gmail browser-application/shortcut from Chrome. I was also forced to reset to defaults in the Preferences / Advanced settings.

It seems that somehow the presence of the second instance of Chrome completely confuses Apple's Notification center. It's all good to go now.