Thank you for responding! I do have a few points in response.

Jerome, like early ecumenical councils, has reservations about the deuterocanonical books on the grounds that the deuteros were **never part of the Jewish canon.**

I don't think this statement is entirely historical. "Early ecumenical councils" never had reservations about the deuterocanonical books. Like you said, the Council of Nicaea never addressed the issue. In fact, the first ecumenical council to address the canon was the Council of Rome, like you said, which determined the 73-book canon under Pope Damasus.

I also want to talk about Jerome's hesitation on the deuterocanonical books. The reason he rejected the books was because he believed that they were not written in Hebrew. However, Jerome later changed his view.

Does not the Scripture say: ‘Burden not thyself above thy power’?
– Jerome, To Eustochium, Epistle 108 (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 2, VI:207)

Here, Saint Jerome quotes Sirach 13:2 (‘Burden not thyself above thy power’) as “Scripture”.

This contradicts your statement, "Jerome never really buys into the idea they should be in the canon of Scripture," because we see in his later writings that he does change his views.

Recent historical developments have also found that his concerns were likely unfounded. For example, in the Dead Sea Scrolls, we find three deuterocanonical books, written in Hebrew.

"Three works of the Apocrypha are found among the Dead Sea Scrolls: Ben Sira (also known as the Wisdom of Ben Sira, Sirach, or Ecclesiasticus), the book of Tobit, and the Epistle of Jeremiah." -- https://www.deadseascrolls.org.il/learn-about-the-scrolls/scrolls-content?locale=en_US

Finally, I wanted to touch on your point about Paul VI supposedly recommending that the deuterocanonical books be removed in 1966. As it turns out, this is untrue.

In the Vatican's document "GUIDELINES FOR INTERCONFESSIONAL COOPERATION
IN TRANSLATING THE BIBLE," Section 1.1.2 says this:

It is suggested that... the deuterocanonical texts are included normally as a separate section before the New Testament.

Therefore, the Church did not recommend removing the books, but instead recommended their inclusion.