Solved! Go to Solution.
The problem still exists but the URLs given in the "solution" no longer exist.
In my case I am trying to DELETE fields, not create them. I also tried using FeatureClassToFeatureClass with a field map. Same result. The target feature class ends up schema locked, it's in a FGDB not a SQL database, and the only way to recover seems to be to quit the Python script, launch Pro, and delete it in Catalog.
The only work around I have found so far is to delete one field at a time, which is slow!