What is the proper setup for recording Neural Plugins in Reaper?

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I’ve been trying to record my Neural plugins (mainly Nolly) into Reaper, but every time I do, the recording I play back sounds significantly more saturated and blown out than it does when I’m playing the plugin live. Noticeably the treble frequencies are much harsher.

I suspect the issue has to do Reaper somehow duplicating and summing the mono guitar signal into a stereo one before the signal is sent to the neural amp. Other forum topics about Neural being used in other DAWs have mentioned this exact issue. I’ve searched high and low, but somehow I can’t find a single video or post explaining how to properly set up Neural for use in Reaper.
I saw a suggestion to create a mono track, and then use a stereo send to an FX track with the plugin in it. However, Reaper cannot create mono tracks, only stereo tracks with a “width” of “0”. Should I do this and then send it to a stereo track with the plugin inserted? (while making sure the dry signal isn’t monitored, of course.)
When I go to record in Reaper, I have the option of “Input: Mono” or “Input: Stereo”. Both of these options give me two bars on the mixer as if they were stereo inputs, but do sound slightly different. Which one of these should I use for recording a single guitar?
I also have the option to use Nolly as an “input FX” while recording. Should I do this?

I have monkeyed around with all of these different options, and during playback none of them sound the way the guitar does while I am recording it. If the issue is not related to stereo/mono issues then Reaper must somehow be adding additional gain to my signal somewhere to alter how overdriven the signal is (All of my sliders on the mixing window are set to +0dB). I want to ensure I have the proper routing of channels and recording setup before I try to figure out if that could be the problem instead.

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One more complicating detail- I use a Motu M2 as my interface. In order to get accurate tones from Neural plugins, I set the input gain to +3.8dB. (I would like to mention that this fact was never communicated to me by Neural, but rather discovered through some hard working fans on youtube. Just an aside.)
If I record a dry, unprocessed, mono signal onto a track using my Motu interface, and then send that track to an FX track with a Neural DSP plugin on it, do I need the input gain of that plugin to be set to 3.8dB, as if I was playing into the standalone through my interface? Or are the levels of a Reaper signal the track is passing into the plugin different than the levels of the signal my interface sends to the plugin? I noticed that by adjusting the input gain to 0 on a Neural amp on a seperate FX track, the amp sounded much closer to the way it does when I’m recording it. Could this be the problem? If so, how could I possibly figure out what that inside-reaper input level should be to match my standalone tones?