The hard drive is ‘encased’ in a foil-looking, very flexible ‘enclosure’.

On the screw-side (near the label), each corner of the foil enclosure has a rubber black stuffed between the drive and the laptop - these blocks are connected to the enclosure via a rubber ‘string’. If you pull those nubs straight up, you can pull on them towards the label to disengage the drive from its SATA interface.

Not a medium effort at all - very easy.

…although, I did have to use an iFixt It needle-nose tweezer to pull the middle 5mm screw out after it was unscrewed - it would not fall out nor did it cling to the screwdriver.

Step 4 is wrong. On the left side of the hard drive (in the step 4 photo) there are two rubber ‘dongles’ (I have no other words for them). Those ‘dongles’ HAVE to be lifted out of their location for the drive to be able to be removed. Also, once those rubber dongles are lifted, they can then be used the to pull the drive out of it’s socket - very smoothly, at that.

"...you've got Touch Disease. Take it to a repair shop."

...and have them do what?