Next day -
As always software development is an art form, not a science.
I followed mcvburen's suggestion and added a second build configuration with RELEASE as its conditional symbol rather than editing the symbols list under the default build configuration. Things then started happening as planned. I have successfully compiled a store app using the original files. Yahoo!!
Unfortunately I didn't run a test compile this morning before making that change so can't be sure if that was a factor or just coincidental.
Still trying to figure out what was going on . . . . .
My first observation would be that the correct code in the #if #else block was highlighted when I simply edited the symbol list under default.
Second, when I completely removed any actual provision files and compiled it didn't complain that the files weren't there - it now does.
It is now complaining that the files are missing using the default setting as well, it didn't before, it simply compiled.
I reset both computers more than once yesterday when testing to no avail. It would seem they had to think on it overnight.
For what its worth Erel
The conclusion I have come to is that somehow, a set of provision files were sitting and being used and reused despite changes to the configuration - the fact that I could remove them entirely and still compile suggests this was the core of the problem for what's its worth. I can't tell if the problem was on the windows\B4I side or the Mac\MacServer\Xcode side.
The file not found error now occurs when sending the compile across
"B4i Version: 5.00
Parsing code. (0.05s)
Compiling code. (0.18s)
Compiling layouts code. (0.01s)
Compiling debugger engine code. (1.58s)
Building Xcode project (0.11s)
Sending data to remote compiler. Error
File not found: D:\Anywhere_Software\B4i\Keys\Firebase.mobileprovision"
I couldn't trigger such an error yesterday.
Which suggests to me that the error was probably in B4I somehow re-using a file it previously used instead of the ones currently actively set in the project, and not actually sourcing them from the \Keys folder each time. It kis now so go figure.
Thanks guys