What would the necessary steps be from start to finish of making a newly joined workstation visible in ConfigMgr? For example, - join domain, windows update installs client, then?

The machine needs to be discovered. Once discovered you have a record in the database. If you are installing the client when the workstation is provisioned, once you have the configuration manager icon in the contol panel, to expedite you can Launch it and then click on actions tab; select every action (except the Branch Distribution Point Maintenance task) and click on "Initiate action"

Workstation has the client, it shows in the CP. I initiated everything, but the Branch Dist. Point Maint. Still not visible in All Systems. It has been 3 hours.