QGIS » QGIS Application

Windows 10.
To duplicate, I am using the 1:20 million US Census county DBF file, cb_2016_us_county_20m.dbf. It is available here: https://www.census.gov/geo/maps-data/data/cbf/cbf_counties.html But, I have provided you with before and after files and screenshots so you don't have to go through duplicating to evaluate.

I read cb_2016_us_county_20m.dbf into either Excel 2003, or OpenOffice Calc. I make no changes. I write it out as a different name.
The names I used are: cb_2016_us_county_20ma.dbf for Calc, and cb_2016_us_county_20mb.dbf for Excel 2003. The same thing happens if I save the .DBF file out as a .xls file.
I can add a layer, but it seems to be classified as labels. Nothing can be displayed for it. See screenshots.
The layer displays with a different name: cb_2016_us_county_20m-b cb_2016_us_county_20m None. (So QGIS is finding the original file name somewhere in the .dbf or .xls file)

I wondered if the bug might be from the intra-file name not matching the name it is read from. So, I tried writing it out to a different directory with no name change and with the same name. Still doesn't work, so that's a red herring. But something in QGIS is adding "None" at the end if the file names mismatch, but it shows nothing like that if the new .DBF file name doesn't change. That's odd, but not a huge deal.

I compared the before and after files in Winmerge, and they have different carriage return formats. They also have slightly different data at the beginning of the file.
I am guessing this is a file parsing problem probably? Maybe it's also something in the layer import that is looking for a certain header pattern and not finding it?
Did my best with Category. Project Loading/Saving seemed to be the best fit for this. Sorry if it's wrong.