Still have no clue why I get that message now and it wont allow me to use the WebAssist tool to add them but I did try to manually add the meta description into the index.php doc and the database and that worked, so I have a workaround.
I'll try uninstalling/reinstalling Design Extender later and see if that clears it up. (edited - tried deleting the wincache dat file and uninstalled/reinstalled and it still does the same thing)
Here's my code: look correct?
<meta name="description" content="<?php echo WA_getCMSContent($database_PowerCMSConnection, $PowerCMSConnection, 'Home Page', 'Meta Description'); ?>"/>