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GMUX firmware mod can still do brightness adjustment with either PCH microvia jumper (software and keyboard control, soldering is risky to perform), raw keyboard signal (no software control, some jumpers required) or custom driver (software and keyboard control, no soldering required), depending...
Why would you randomly reflow large BGAs for no reason? Good way to make sure to kill the board…
LVDS line issue, often caused by GMUX. Can also be a broken trace elsewhere or a bad LCD connector.
M1 needs to be working anyway since it contains encryption keys. You can still try to replace U8100, if you're very lucky M1 may be fine.
But first you can try to remove L8100/L8101/L8102 one by one to try to isolate the phases if there is only one shorted.