Yes, I also expect that it is far more likely that a defective battery is to blame, plus the batteries should have protection circuitry built-in anyways.
Based so far on what I have read (There is some BAD information out there!), there is some handling of this information by Android, so I will figure it out before I reattempt. The Android batterystats.bin information is surviving the flash into UT somehow, because the battery life is in the ballpark of being similar between an Android and UT system. Or maybe it isn't being preserved and it is part of the reason everyone complains about battery life? It would be interesting to hear a battery replacement success story.
A possible solution would be to replace the battery and perform a few discharge cycles under Android before reflashing as it is a very infrequent event.
Anyway, I have put the original battery back in, and everything is running smoothly now. I plan on reattempting this in the near future, but I will try to buy a more expensive knock-off this time.