Oddly, I found that one must install termcap for the export LESS_TERMCAP_md=$'\E[01;38;5;74m' # begin bold and such statements to have a chance or working.
Wow, weird
However, despite having termcap installed, exporting LESS_TERMCAP values still don't work. Very odd.
paracelsus@Callandor:~> less --version
less 424
Copyright (C) 1984-2008 Mark Nudelman
Still rather weird - it works so easily on CentOS.