Problem with using ksm($entity) in hook_entity_insert()
Found another post that provides a solution to my problem:
How to preserve kint output upon form submit redirection?

In my case, while 

ksm($entity) 


would display nothing, or show errors, 

ksm($entity-&gt;toArray()) 


seems to display correctly.  

I'm a bit baffled myself why this happens, and will continue to investigate.