is it not possible to copy/paste an image from another app? I tried, and Joplin just shows a small obj placeholder icon. images can only be inserted into a note and rendered if it's saved locally?
apparently this is a known issue. sorry, I didn't come across any of these previous forum posts until after I posted my question. direct searches didn't turn any up.
I did figure out that I can successfully insert an image from apple notes just by dragging it over to Joplin--while the copy/paste route doesn't work. of course, directly inserting an image that's saved locally is no problem.