The above configuration pertains to CodeDOM, a set of classes in the System.CodeDom namespace in the System.dll assembly that ASP.NET uses to generate our "code behind" classes.
The CodeDOM configuration has changed from v2 of the .NET framework to v3.5.
I missed the part where the above error gives me the path of the web.config it is complaining about. The path is C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.30319\CONFIG\web.config
and that file did have this <providerOption>
element.
I commented that out. This error is now gone.
However, I still have other issues to deal with but this one goes away. So, anyone else in the future who faces this error might use this answer as help.