Hello to anyone who may read this! I have seemingly resolved the issue, which was that the firmware that the Basic ESC was shipped installed with needed to be replaced, as per the following zip file linked in this forum conversation. I have also attached that zip file to this post.
https://discuss.bluerobotics.com/t/blueesc-firmware-compatible-with-afro-slim-20a-esc/
I used the Afro Programming Tool with the KKMulticopterTool software to update the firmware on the ESC, and can now control the speed via the write_word_data(address,0x00,integer) command, and read what appears to be the expected RPM data used the read_word_data(address,0x02) command. Happy day!