I released the initial version of the N8ME firmware about two years ago, then stopped working on. VU3GOA then made some modifications to it about a year ago. I've not kept up with those mods, but I think a lot of things are the same. The answers below are based on the original N8ME firmware. Hopefully VU3GOA will comment on anything affected by his changes.
The manual is the manual I originally released. To my knowledge it has not been updated for the VU3GAO changes. The screen images are for the original firmware.
The settings on the CFG screen including Freq Cal, BFO and Touch are not saved to EEPROM until the user clicks SAVE on the CFG screen. That was by design so that if the user completely screwed up the calibration, he/she could click CANCEL to reset them back to what they were.
But once the SAVE button is clicked, those calibrations are saved to EEPROM and should survive power cycles.
Since the radio offsets the frequency for CW mode, I wonder if that could explain the offset you are seeing recently. Could you be in CW rather than SSB?
As for RIT operation, when the RIT button is highlighted the RIT offset (which is not displayed) is added to the TX frequency and is displayed as the RX frequency. If you click the RIT button so that it is not highlighted, the RIT offset (which is still in memory) is not added. If you click the RIT button again so that it is highlighted, the offset will be added. ?If you hold the RIT button until the radio beeps, the RIT button will un-highlight and the RIT offset will be set to 0. ?Also, the RIT value or RIT in use is not saved to EEPROM, so if you cycle the power RIT will be cancelled and the offset will again be 0.
In answer to your question, if the RIT button is not highlighted, the RIT offset is not applied and the TX and RX frequencies are the same.
I hope this helps
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73,
Mark, N8ME
Mark Erbaugh