Thank you dismedvc. It may only be semantics to you but I am going to have to think about this for a while.
You actually were correct in asking for clarification. It may be more than just semantics.
I actually tried to set up an NE person in
MDE as a subaccount that I manage yesterday, and it appeared to work fine, including the option to invite friends. However, when I sent an email to my wife for her to connect to that new NE person in her separate MDE account, when she accepted, it actually reconnected her to my original "main" MDE name, and the new NE person disappeared from my account. (If I would have attached any entitlements to that new NE account, I assume it would not have disappeared, but it appears that subaccounts can no longer be connected to other family in friends anymore.)
We therefore ended up setting up our NE names in new MDE accounts, using different email addresses, and then we could connect both of those new NE accounts to both of our original accounts.
I think the subaccount method would work if you put all your families NE accounts under one MDE profile, but you would not be able to connect those subaccounts with other family and friends.
FYI: Last year I set up subaccounts for family members that were age 18+, who did not want their own MDE accounts, and I was able to have other family members, who had their own separate MDE accounts, connect to those subaccounts. In the FAQ of MDE it indicates that subaccounts for children age 13 or under cannot be connected to other family and friends, however, it now seems that even when the age is 14 or older, those subaccounts can no longer be connected. I also noticed that the option to add friends from "a list of people I may know", basically friends of friends does not work. Taking away those functions must be programing "enhancements" since last year.
p.s. When you send an email invite to connect, when the invited person clicks on the accept button imbedded in the email they receive, it generates a error message. To actually accept, they need to log into their MDE account, hold the curser over the "my Disney experience" wording at the upper right, and in the dropdown that appears click on the red notification icon. It actually says in the email, directly below the accept/decline buttons that are imbedded in the email (that do not work), that you need to log into your MDE account, but those imbedded buttons make it somewhat confusing. Also, it does not tell you in the email exactly where you need to look for the invitation once you log into your MDE account.