At my wits end, good ole fuel gauge troubles

Before you do that let's make sure the connector is ok.

Another thing that can happen is the wire inside the connector can break. And in some positions it is fully attached and others it's not.

So any testing you should manipulate the connector and look for reading changes while moving it.

To me the issue is at the connector OR you just don't have enough fuel in the tank to make the needle move. There is additional resistance on the wire that adds to the sender compounding the issue
It’s definitely a thought.. I’m soon gonna be pulling the motor and I was hoping to have this sorted out prior but.. may just take a break if after my next couple of attempts result in failure. Wait till after the engine swap and revisit this rubix cube