Just an update, I went ahead and put in my 2nd rp2040 board after programming it and confirming the LED was the proper color after USB flash.
After installing it, the LED was showing CYAN rather than GREEN. I asked my GF to look at the first one and she confirmed it looked green, but this new one was definitely cyan. After seeing that, I went back over all my soldering joints concerning the MOSFET and CPU pins.
I am now currently able to boot to Hekate and am performing an eMMC nand backup. Strangely, it seems to have a 50/50 shot at whether Hekate IPL is loaded or not, but I have not shortened the wires and permanently installed it yet.
At any rate, I can't be upset about having to reboot one time to get into Hekate from OFW.
LET'S GO, PICOFLY FOR THE WIN!