So I found a solution on Windows for those of us with the el cheapo USB Blaster.

1/ Install Quartus II v11 & the drivers (from DVD)
2/ Install Quartus 17 "32-bit windows programmer only software" from the website
3/ run Quartus 17 programmer once, USB blaster likely will detect but not work, so quit Quartus
4/ in device manager, find the Altera USB blaster (it'll prolly have an exclamation mark), "Update the driver" using the driver in the Quartus II v11 folders (just do auto search).
5/ run Quartus 17 programmer and it'll reliably program everything without issues from the JLC file. 

I hope this helps folks.