That is indeed odd. Before I reinstalled gnome-software and gnome-software-controls, I booted the machine and went to synaptic package manager which instead of opening, gave me a message that another software manager was running. Soon I got a prompt that there was an update available, a single system update. I ran the updater and all seemed like it worked fine. Then I reinstalled the gnome software and after one error message saying "Sorry, something went wrong" the gnome software center was running like it should.
On the first install of it, the ALL and INSTALLED windows would not display anything, but the updater did work. I wonder if it stayed installed when I uninstalled the other two packages, and ran on the next boot?