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Hi all,
Success! There was no need to disassemble the camera further. The issue was entirely on the side body cover. The failure was with the spring metal piece whose job is to keep the "Finder" slider button in its tracks. This metal piece is not fastened into the side body cover very securely - one melted-over plastic post, one not-melted registration post, and a tiny crimped prong on the opposite end. When the metal piece gets dislodged, the slider doesn't track properly and the excess play causes it to not engage with the release lever on the EVF module. I figure that the cause of the failure was that the EVF "Finder" release button got pushed in causing the metal piece to be deformed and/or dislodged from its flimsy mountings.
This photo is the crimped prong end of the metal piece. I held it into the proper position and put drops of gel super glue on the prong area and on the registration pin. Reassembled and all works properly!
FYI - I think the disassembly tutorial could use some further explanation. After you remove all the bottom and side screws, the back does NOT come off as one piece. There are actually three separate pieces. If you want to take the LCD module off the camera (with the right side piece), you need to remove one additional screw that is under the Near Field ribbon cable on the left side as shown in my previous picture.
Thanks for the advice and especially the pointer to the service manual.
--Carl