11.1R, PHP7.2.3: mysqli not loading. What am I missing?

[scratch65535 at att.net]

from pkg info -x php72:

===================
mod_php72-7.2.3
php72-7.2.3
php72-ctype-7.2.3
php72-dom-7.2.3
php72-extensions-1.0
php72-filter-7.2.3
php72-gd-7.2.3
php72-hash-7.2.3
php72-iconv-7.2.3
php72-json-7.2.3
php72-mbstring-7.2.3
php72-mysqli-7.2.3
php72-opcache-7.2.3
php72-openssl-7.2.3
php72-pdo-7.2.3
php72-pdo_sqlite-7.2.3
php72-phar-7.2.3
php72-posix-7.2.3
php72-session-7.2.3
php72-simplexml-7.2.3
php72-sockets-7.2.3
php72-sodium-7.2.3
php72-sqlite3-7.2.3
php72-tokenizer-7.2.3
php72-xml-7.2.3
php72-xmlreader-7.2.3
php72-xmlwriter-7.2.3
=====================


from /usr/local/etc/php.ini:
=====================
;extension=bz2
;extension=curl
;extension=fileinfo
;extension=gd2
;extension=gettext
;extension=gmp
;extension=intl
;extension=imap
;extension=interbase
;extension=ldap
;extension=mbstring
;extension=exif      ; Must be after mbstring as it depends on it

extension=mysqli

;extension=oci8_12c  ; Use with Oracle Database 12c InstantClient

extension=openssl

;extension=pdo_firebird
;extension=pdo_mysql
;extension=pdo_oci
;extension=pdo_odbc
;extension=pdo_pgsql
;extension=pdo_sqlite
;extension=pgsql
;extension=shmop
======================

Should work, right?

but from phpinfo:
============
libxml   ...
mysqlnd ...
============

and when I run a test job

============================================
Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function
mysqli_connect() 
==================

Am I forgetting something?