What did I do WRONG?

As explained in one of the comments to your question, the issue is how WP stored images (which are actually a kind of post). If you look at the Media on your developement/local site, you will see that each image has a URL that is related to your local URL.

And each image is stored in a folder (you can see the folder name in the URL). So, there are two things you have to do if you want the images from your development site available on the live site.e

You have to manually copy the images from the development folders to the same folders on the live site.

And you have to replace the URLs inside the database for those media items to point to the new URL. This is most easily done with a Search and Replace plugin (I like the “Better Search and Replace” plugin). Use the plugin to search for your old domain/URL (the test system) and replace it with the new/live domain name/URL. (You can do this also with manual SQL commands, but the plugins are easier.)

Once you do that, the new images should be visible.

And, please, no all caps. It looks like you are shouting, and it’s hard to read.