For Cloudflare SSL, all I did was regular install and DNS A record. (Is this ok? Sure was easy)

CloudFlare does have those options, but only the basic/‘pretend’ option (SSL between the user and CF, insecure between CF and server) will work unless you set up SSL on your Discourse server, and if you’re going to do that, Let’s Encrypt is the easiest way - a few lines in a config file and you’re done.