If something had to break off, that’s not the worst part in the world.
@Paul_Combe - thanks! 
that thing lets the laptop make a fuss and blink the status LED red a whole bunch
Ah! That explains why I didn’t see blinking red LEDs here: Fully Resetting the Mainboard State - Framework Guides
Now with the Battery still disconnected and the RTC Coin Cell still removed, plug your Power Adapter back into the laptop. At this point, you should see the LEDs on the left and right sides of the Mainboard start to blink red. This confirms that the board is powered on and in a reset state.
I decided to proceed anyway and see what happened. It did turn on and all is well.
And thanks for the link @anon81945988! Will probably skip the manual adjustment for now but good to know it has worked for others. PS. I think you meant to link to Hard shell | case for framework laptop wanted - #6 by GFOM