I ended up finding a solution in this other thread here: https://unacms.com/d/redirect-after-login

emplate/script/BxBaseFormLogin.php:

$sRelocate = BX_DOL_URL_ROOT . 'member.php';

replaced member.php with index.php and it forced the index page to appear to logged-in members instead of the splash page.

I also replaced the Home link with a direct link to index.php so it wouldn't loop logged in users back to the splash page as well