Do you accept any of the traditional ideas of why God creates the relatively “illusory” universe? […] If he’s hiding from himself, why would he do that?

I guess, no, but I’m pretty uneducated in this regard so it’s hard to give a clear, definitive yes-or-no answer. Anyway, I can somewhat subscribe to Hindu concept of lila in that it’s a “divine play”, a pastime of sorts … creative outlet maybe? I, personally, like to say that God plays hide-and-seek with himself. As for why — well, and why not? For me it’s a moot question. Rest assured, I asked the same why, too, but from a certain moment the problem became irrelevant.

what’s the enlightened, esoteric theodicy?

I would say that that is a bonus question — in addition to “why in the first place”, people also ask “why in such an illogical fashion”. After all, if one is omnipotent, why create an universe full of pain and suffering. I don’t know if it’s enlightened or esoteric, but somewhere along the road a “nursery rhyme” came to me:

Well, it should be understood
there’s no evil, there’s no good.
Love the Devil as your brother,
God will bless you like no other.

However, if this is not an everyday, lived knowledge one may think that anything goes. And in a sense it’s true. All paths are merely paths to pleasure, pain, peace, suffering, or what have you. And none is better than the rest — pleasure pleasures, pain pains and that’s that. They all have practical purposes, but I won’t go into details, I guess, they are obvious. I think that good and bad are only very broad concepts — if I come to a road fork and I want to go left, I would say that the path leading to the left is the good one, because it leads to the left. But in reality the path leading to the right is equally good, but for going to the right. So, you can intentionally cause pain and destruction and it’s perfectly fine (there are forces in universe that do exactly that and it’s their purpose, though only in context of an interaction), but as a human being you have also other choices. So, it’s a problem of choice (as the classic said). Then again, drive toward homeostasis and state of equilibrium seems to be the default “arrow of change”. All in all, as I see it, the enormous polemic about why God created evil or where evil comes from is basically just a manifestation of incomplete knowledge.

I think your second point about “transcendent awareness” is semantic. You surely have to draw some distinction between the experience of mindfulness and the entrapped, egoistic mode of experience which mistakes maya for reality.

It seemed to me that you equate this “expanded awareness” with “final realization”. I saw many people who’s fixed perception of reality was cracked by some experience that appeared extraordinary (by their standards), who suddenly thought that now they know the truth, only to fall for some sectarian or conspiracy BS (or both), or, on the other extreme of spectrum, for utter cynicism and/or nihilism. You can clearly identify these people by their feelings of superiority and expressed or implied condescension toward the “unenlightened” ones. These folks also tend to be quite arrogant and self-assured. Well, Carlos Castaneda would say that they are blinded by the momentary clarity of their mind. But there’s still a long way ahead of them. Thus, I deem it necessary to point out this potential trap.

Philosophy’s my jam. I’m also into art, so I can experience the world aesthetically

I’m aware of that. Try to approach it from the perspective of the very first philosopher on Earth. I mean, imagine that you are the first person to contemplate these things. Discard all philosophy you’ve learned and see what you’ll be left with. Also, in your other piece you’ve mentioned that you are able to see the beauty in everything. If you include yourself, too, it’s a good (LOL) way to go.