This search and replace is beyond my understanding currently. I am going to wipe the entires manually all 6k of them. What a waste of time…
Since this is only the first major import of CPT and no one has claimed them it is faster to delete / trash all 6000, correct the Regions field and upload again.
Valuable lesson learned. One I hope I do not have to repeat.
I did reach out the the developers of the Search and Replace to obtain an estimate.
Time is the problem.. I cannot wait two days to get some kind of an answer from them and then two days later decide if I can afford it. I can just delete and start over within a couple of hours.
Kind regards and thank you for your support.
SEO is taken care of.. Wordfence was the culprit.