I've tried a few variations of trying to turn on org-num-mode (which now
comes standard in org, correct?) in my init, but I keep getting an error
buffer upon a fresh startup

Error (use-package): org/:config: Cannot activate headline numbering
outside Org mode

although when I dismiss it with q and call up an org file, org-num-mode is
on. Any ideas what to do? I saw this

(use-package org-num
  :load-path "lisp/"
  :after org
  :hook (org-mode . org-num-mode))

but I assume he's using the github version. This

(use-package org
  :defer 2
  :ensure nil
  :hook
  ((org-mode . org-num-mode)
   (org-mode . (lambda () ;; this will make sure auto-fill works for
org-mode
                 (setq-local comment-auto-fill-only-comments nil)
                 (setq-local display-line-numbers-type 'absolute))))
...

All of these produce the error, but, again, org-num works.

LB