Ok, here's something:

I use Notepad++ Portable . . . http://portableapps.com/apps/develop...padpp_portable

. . . because there is no export feature for your Notepad++ settings on the regular, install version.
With the portable version, you just make your settings, and can then copy and paste the program to use anywhere as a stand alone text editor.
The only downside to this is that I don't think you can update the portable version, due to some security risk.

. . . so, I see that if I copy and paste the 3-row output into Notepad++, it includes the hard returns (Alt+Enter)

. . . this is in contrast to if I paste the 3-row output into MS Notepad - it gets rid of the hard returns (so you wouldn't see the above if you were using MS Notepad)

Also: I see that MS Notepad still adds quotes - so it's not a Notepad++ issue:
a.) at the beginning and end of the entire concatenate, and
b.) around quoted words within the description