@dareposte found your post from snazzy labs youtube link, followed your guide and near everything is working. Didn't do any kind of DSDT mods. I picked up the $279/i3 version from Best Buy on eBay.
Only issues so far are as you mentioned:
- basic trackpad function (best to use mouse, TP is very "sticky")
- BT becomes unavailable after sleep (sometimes)
- display brightness keys don't work - but it's a crap screen anyway and doesn't require much adjustment
- imessage / itunes working
- battery display
- doesn't go to sleep when lid is closed, unless already asleep or put asleep manually
- kernel panic on reboot about 50% of time on reboot
I'm not a heavy laptop user so this works great for my needs and is replacing a 2015 macbook air.
thank you for your efforts. My last laptop was a "netbook" from back in the day