I am running KDE Plasma 5 on ArchLinux. I have everything working decently, but I have a want to enable the transparent abilities. When I try and setup through the systems settings, the edit mode or within the different settings therein, I'm never ever able to get the application launcher or the main task bar transparent. I've reset all settings to defaults and am still not able to accomplish my goals...

Is there a special circumstance or trick for application/task bar to be transparent?

I suggest you do some reading on how to use, for example, Kvantum or Lightly, to get transparency. Look at plasma themes as well.
Lightly example: https://imgur.com/a/UMLCo7N

Personally I prefer Lightly. For a couple of reasons. At least, for me. Kvantum: 1) Kvantum, although fancy at first, has its limitations 2) some themes are nice whilst others downright are badly done 3) the kde store is a mess, you need to spend a lot of time to find what you exactly want 4) full window transparency is, depending on the blur, not very practical
I was looking for a way so that I can have a...full window so to speak. No distinction in panels and windows in maximized windows ( see previous screenshot), a universal look for everything ( panel, wm, menus etc). Aaaand, an easy switch. So, I made my own panel, set to a certain transparency ( which matches the other transparencies), adaptable to the color scheme. And I use Lightly as application style. 1) it looks waaay better than the default Breeze ( imho, the UI devs need to step up) 2) it supports transparency 3) it supports color schemes. By doing this, all I have to do is change color. Everything will adapt accordingly ( colors, transparency, blur) in a single click. Panel, toolbars, menus, side panels...
You can't achieve that by using Kvantum. Like I said, kvantum can be cool, but it has limitations. At least, for me it has. https://imgur.com/a/woABVkX Switch:
https://imgur.com/a/u1NHoe3