Again, thank you to
Mwenenzi MSPeconomist and
bzcat for helping me to understand the process! I just returned home very early today from 15 days in Fiji: it was a scuba diving trip with 1 week on a liveaboard and 1 week at Taveuni Dive Resort. I'm a rusty traveller (due to Covid) but managed to travel there and back with minimal hassle.
* My luggage was checked through all the way to Nadi, didn't have to hassle with it in LAX
* Got 2 boarding passes in Toronto; the LAX-NAN portion was exchanged at the gate in LAX for a Fiji Airline version
* Stayed "airside" in LAX, no more TSA Security checks
* navigated terminals at LAX, arriving Terminal 6, departing TBIT
Had a great trip, but very happy to be home!