How does a three year-old DUI arrest without conviction if at all impact licensing with DMVs?

I’m a Florida resident, working for a CA company, and spend a good portion of time in both states. In July 2010, I was arrested for DUI in Orange Co, CA, by OC Sheriffs. I blew 0.13. They confiscated my FL driver’s license and impounded my rental car, etc. After the DA took a couple of months to file on me, I eventually appeared in court and was found eligible for CA’s “first offender” program. For various reasons, I did not sign up for the program. I was subsequently picked up on a warrant for said failure to sign up, plus a felony drug possession charge. I plead guilty on the possession charge, did some county time (to include time for FTA on the DUI case plus dismissal of court costs on same), completed PC1210 program and had my three years of formal probation discharged after one year. Fast forward to 2014. After basically getting by via public transportation and bicycle for the past three years (I was never in CA long enough to complete the three month DUI program) I get laid off, stuck in CA, with now time enough to sign up for and complete the program, hoping to return to FL for work. A treatment provider in LA Co near where I reside suggested that I ask the court to be on an accelerated program which can be completed in six weeks instead of twelve, if the court would approve. But a trip to Orange Co court where my cases were adjudicated yielded a surprise—I was never convicted of the DUI in Orange County! Apparently the case was dropped completely in favor of the harsher drug possession charge (though I thought I had convictions for both.) Is this just a distinction without a difference? The CA DMV says they will not issue me a driver’s license without completing the first offender program. Florida renewed my license (listed as valid, w/o restrictions on their website ‘til 2021), but will not send me the physical license until I’ve completed the program. Should I just complete the CA program to get my CA license, then return to FL?