FW 13 AMD Ryzen 7 Input Cover Kit replacement trouble

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I love my FW 13 laptop, and seem to have killed it.
It has run beautifully since I got it over a year ago. Then I ordered an Input Cover Kit for it (Clear, ANSI, 2nd gen).
The instructions for removing the original input cover and installing the new seemed clear and easy. I went through both procedures (10 steps total) without any “oops” moments (e.g. where something seems to take more or less force than it should).
The only cautionary moment was on plugging in the new cover’s touchpad cable, red LEDs on either side of the interior of the case flashed twice in unison, then went out again. More on that below.
Otherwise, everything seemed to go smoothly, and I got it all put back together.
But then pressing the power button had no effect. The power button didn’t light up, the keyboard didn’t light up, and the laptop did not respond in any way.
I took it back apart, checked all connections, put it back together, but still no response.
Then I took it back apart and replaced the original cover kit. Again the red LEDs flashed, and again it is unresponsive once put back together.
A note on the flashing red LEDs: They don’t flash every time I plug in the touchpad cable. It seems that every time I swap covers and plug in a different one, the lights flash twice. But if I just unplug and plug back in the touchpad cable on the same cover, sometimes the LEDs flash and sometimes they don’t. So it appears that the laptop seems to at least recognize that I’m plugging in a touchpad cable, and possibly even that it belongs to a different cover kit than was previously plugged in.
That’s about all I know. Without being able to power up the system in any way, there’s not a lot of diagnostics I can think to try. Unfortunately, I don’t have as much free time to spend on this as I would like.
I feel like I’m missing something so obvious they didn’t bother putting it into the guide.
But I have quadruple checked the connections on both ends of both input cover kits. Everything seems pristine.
Charging LED on exterior left is showing solid white (full charge) when plugged in.
I’ve submitted a support ticket. I’ll update here any new info that comes to light, and of course update the ticket with any ideas suggested here, including suggestions on making the ticket more actionable.

System is Windows 11 Pro, FW 13 AMD Ryzen 7000, pre-built professional version.

AMD Ryzen™ 7 7840U (up to 5.1GHz, 8-core/16-thread)
13.5" 2256x1504 60Hz matte display
32GB (2x16GB) Memory
1TB Storage
Battery - 61Wh
WiFi 6E
Windows 11 Pro

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Normally one should always disconnect the battery of a laptop before working on it.
However, as far as I can see, none of Framework’s guides say anything about doing this.
There is a note I saw somewhere saying the battery connector is extremely fragile, so maybe going to the BIOS and choosing battery disconnect in there would be the thing to do?
But if so, why isn’t this mentioned in Framework’s repair guides?
An official comment would be good.

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I worked with Framework Support (they’re fantastic!) to establish that the mainboard and battery needed replacing.

After replacing those, and updating BIOS and drivers and all that, the laptop was back up and running as if nothing had ever happened.

Then I re-installed the new input cover, using the same procedure as before, and it installed without issue. Everything seems fine now.

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