> how could someone be this deep into a project of this depth and not realize this

I think this is a software guy who occasionally dips into hardware things (to hunt bugs).

That's what I figure -- but it was wild to read that after reading the part about component-level PCB repair lol

Yeh, it seems odd to have the cut off cables, the wiring information...and then to go and buy a loom rather than bodging a cable at that point.