FactTextField, when setting the value from its "text" field, was converting the value to string. This was causing (QML JavaScript) code that uses the value for computation to stop working once the user changed the value.

Plus a large number of other changes to allow for orderly shutdown of
objects without crashes or asserts. This is need for unit tests to
create/delete global state around every test.

Allows parameter access from QML among other things

Used for unit testing