no, if I knew it was the starter I would pull the engine about 4 inches to get the driver side header off to get to the starter
however, I seriously doubt it is the starter (not doubting you or your insight) but the knock sounds to come from deeper within the engine and everytime I fire it up it gets worse
last time I ran it it actually sounded like there was no oil on it...like there was a squeak, squeak coming in with the knock knock
(the squeak squeak was the reason I pulled the valve covers to see if there was sufficient oil flow to the top end)
don't get me wrong, that starter will get thoroughly inspected as well once the motor is out and everything you mentioned is prone to failure will be looked at