Thanks, CQuartetti,
So why do you suppose, in December of 2019, my VMware Workstation 14.1.8 system, running on an all-SSD platform (on which my VM's .vmdk's are also housed) prompts me with the exact same "A fragmented virtual disk is affecting the virtual machine's performance. Defragment the following virtual disk..." instruction that I should use VMware's VM settings to defragment my vm's virtual disks?
It's very hard to resist a clear advisory from your platform-of-choice (VMware) to perform maintenance that it claims will improve performance.