Late 2013 Macbook Pro dGPU died, looking for advice on fixing some quirks after disabling it.

TLDR: I've mostly fixed it by disabling the dGPU but now my brightness keys don't work. And when the screen goes black from idling, it won't turn back on.

I got a hard freeze on my Late 2013 Macbook Pro running Sequoia 15.5, then got caught in boot loops. Could get in via safe mode.

Nuked everything to stock and started over when I couldn't figure it out but still got boot loops. Eventually figured out the dGPU shit the bed.

I ran sudo nvram FA4CE28D-B62F-4C99-9CC3-6815686E30F9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00 per this link which let me boot normally but would crash shortly after getting to desktop.

I ran sudo nvram GfxMode=4 from safe mode which actually worked. I can boot normally and the dGPU doesn't show up in system info.

I applied OCLP and bumped up macOS from Big Sur to Sequoia 15.7.3 without issues.

The only problem now is the brightness keys don't work, and if the screen goes black from idle I can't get it on again. I suspect sleep is affected too based on some reading around.

Resetting the SMC didn't solve it.

ChatGPT is recommending Lilu + WhateverGreen kexts but I'm skeptical because I think its pulling this info from regular opencore and I don't understand the full implications of adding them.

Anyone have suggestions on how to fix this?

Could I flash with a version of OCLP that is meant for the same laptop without the dGPU?

Thanks!