I see the change in wp_posts and wp_options though, but chaos still reigns online...
Deleting htaccess and then re-saving things (re-writing it) at Dashboard > Settings > Permalinks might fix that or at least help a bit, and then there is also the matter of whether you have cleared your browser cache and/or have any site-wide cache in place.
www was in my wordpress & site url before
BUT www wasn't in the thousands of urls under wp_posts
AND www is the root directory in FTP ...
Any suggestions? Shouldn't everything be consistent?
Yes, you want to use either www or non-www everywhere, and I do not know what you mean by "www is the root directory in FTP" unless you might be speaking of your "public root" directory that just happens to have that name...and that would have nothing to do with your actual URL. For me that directory is 'public_html', and for others it is 'htdocs' or whatever.
To get everything straight, first be certain you have what you actually want -- www or non-www -- in all places throughout your database. After that, htaccess is where either can be redirected to the other so WordPress will only ever receive what is actually being expected by your database and will only use (for finding things) what actually works at your site.