Ha! Found a solution that worked! Comment #16, from the Ubuntu Bug Report #1301158, worked. I simply modified the "network applet" command that I previously entered in Settings/Session and Startup/Application Autostart (which earlier I had entered as "gksu nm-applet") to "dbus-launch nm-applet". I also unchecked the Network (Manage your network connections) entry from there (it was impossible for me to modify that, since the Edit button is greyed out). Anyway, the following command worked for me:

Makes feel a little bit better I suppose ....

Yes. Always good to solve a puzzle.

Do you have the indicator plugin added to the panel as I that's where it appears in Mint Xfce. It may have been a newbie error but it confused me for a while when I accidentally deleted it!

[edit]I'll leave this here because I can't be the only one to do this... I hope[/edit]

The applet now shows up in the panel, yes (see attachment). It was not added as a plugin in the same sense that the audio mixer or screenshot plugin were added (IE, it was not added via a right-click to the panel and selecting "Add New Items..." from a list of available plugins). Rather, it was added via the "Application Autostart" feature in Settings/Session and Startup as I previously described. There is a Network Monitor plugin designed to show network traffic, but that's not what I was focusing on, and I do not use that plugin. Rather, this is the applet for the network manager (specifically, nm-applet).

Attached Thumbnails

 

Yeah that's what I was talking about. It sits inside the Indicator Applet which is what I managed to remove from the panel.