Okay, so an update...
I pulled out the transition piece, and found that the installer had left a decent gap, seems to have applied a whack-load of glue when putting it in, and this bonded the transition to the end-pieces on either side of it. I managed to slice through the glue with a knife (not easy) and then was able to tap the pieces back together to close most of the gaps (not easy, since they're on a diagonal). Hopefully this hasn't caused any hidden problems. I forgot to glue the pieces together, so hopefully they will still move as one piece in the future and not separate.
I still have two large gaps which end and start at a wall, and I am apprehensive about about removing the baseboard, to try to pull the boards together, since that means getting out the brad nailer and paint, etc. etc. to fix it after. I will try the "kicking with a sneaker" method soon for those instead if I can. I tried everything with these pieces at the transition and had no success using hands or feet to move them.
Incidentally, we bought the flooring at Home Improvement Warehouse. I looked at their catalog and it looks like it is still available, but we also have a few spare boards that we kept just in case, so I really have no idea how we would install them if we had to replace a board in the middle of the room.
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