Thank you for everyone's assistance and time.
I finally cracked the riddle!
I logged in to blockchain.com and used the walletID (the "05bf8b8a-639c-XXXX-XXX-87718ba56d23" part of the url) and an old "standard password" I used back then.
The site then sent an authorization code to the email address linked with the walletID. It's here that I got lost, because no confirmation mail was sent to any of my email addresses.
Then I remembered an email address I used way back then. Opened the mailbox and the authorization link from blockchain.com was waiting for me.
Click to confirm. Login. Move coins out! Yay!
So in short the wallet.dat file that accompanied the wallet address was the red herring!
Thanks again for the patience and help! (I must give kudos to nc50lc - it was your previous post that nudged me towards the finish-line. )
(On a side note, if anyone is aware of a time machine or a way I can tell 2012-me to keep mining, please let me know. I'll pay handsomely.)