Well GerardD, you just made my day. I went ahead and created a C++ project and it worked. One thing I noticed as it was packaging, the log showed the plugin building under the UnrealBuildTool. So I think it might have to do with the UnrealBuildTool not being able to find the plugins location when using an editor only project. I will give you credit for answering the question. But we can still discuss any further progress on this post, or if anyone else has additional information.
Thanks again,
Isaac