I zoned. I validated game assets. Started EQ again, tried the /loadskin custom.. no dice. Zoned to pok.. tried it again and it worked. /shrug!! My other account logged in from another EQ game file with no UI issues. Same UI custom. What I got to work when it was broken was to copy the custom into the default overriding the files it would replace. Then /loadskin default and that got custom working again. Anyway, it seems to be working.
They made a lot of UI changes with the patch so it shouldn't be that unexpected that a custom UI might break. Depending on how your custom UI is working it could break with every change or almost never break and the UI that I use almost never breaks even on beta.
<EverQuest>\UIErrors.txt provides a log of UI errors. Use that to iteratively find and resolve issues. I am using a custom UI with classic/original spell icons https://imgur.com/a/qstd0Ty