Turns out my PTM pads were still in the return window from amazon, and judging by some of the other posts regarding diy fixes, they are possibly not genuine (at least not the 7850 or whatever)
Also found a link to request a fix kit directly from framework once it’s available so hopefully after that my computer won’t sound like a jet taking off when I load up something marginally taxing 
First of all, thank you, this is awesome. The effort you put into this, to help other users to replicate yours successful steps is remarkable.
Also, shoutout to the guy who used a pencil to create a cutting guide for the PTM.
That being said, I couldn’t help but think “hold on, there has to be a simpler way to do this.”
I tried… And these are my two cents.
What you need:
Steps:
BE CAREFUL. Liquid Metal is not to be messed with. Luckily the stock TIM should be solid but malleable in normal working condition.
Warm up the laptop with some CPU bench, leave it running for ~10 minutes
Disassemble the midplate following the official guide
Remove the (non captive) lateral screws holding down the cooler
remove the 4 screws on the cooler springs
now the tricky bit: take out your hairdryer. Warm up the center of the cooler for a while. In the meantime, twist the entire heatsink side to side a little. Keep warming up. When it wiggles (should have 1cm of play laterally) you can put the plastic flat side of the Framework Screwdriver between the cooler and the mainboard and carefully use it to pry off the cooler. I managed to take it off without prying too hard.
when the cooler is off, put it aside.
take some paper towels and put them in protection of the mainboard, just in case
scrape off the old LM TIM with the flat part of the FW Screwdriver or tool of your choice. I strongly recommend plastic tools to work on the die. You can be more aggressive on the heatsink.
clean througly with IPA both sides
cut to size your TIM of choice. I used Thermal Grizzly PTM PhaseSheet.
Apply, close up the patient, test and be happy 
[Sorry in advance, english is not my first language]
Big thanks for your instructions. I just managed to replace the liquid metal with Honeywell PTM7950, and it went smoothly. The Cinebench R23 results jumped from 12k to 16k points, and CPU power increased from 35W to around 55W.
I used an ordinary hairdryer to heat up the heatsink. A few minutes of blowing air was enough, and the heatsink came off on its own after a gentle pull. It seems to me this is the least invasive method for the hardware.
For anyone wondering how big of a thermal pad is needed, the CPU die size is about 16mm x 12mm (so a fairly small thermal pad is enough to cut to size)