iMac 27 late 2013 with Sequoia only boots if in safe mode

I’m hitting a wall with my iMac 27" Late 2013 (iMac14,2), I probably already did everything I could do, but maybe someone here have any tip.

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 700M series
RAM: 32GB (4x8GB)
Storage: 1TB Kingston SSD

The Problem: The machine was running Sequoia 15.7 (OCLP) smoothly until it suddenly froze. Now, it hangs at the Apple logo loading bar (around 30%) on every normal boot. I can only reach the desktop via Safe Mode. What I’ve already tried:

• Clean Installs: Tried fresh installs of both Sonoma (OCLP) and native Catalina (created via Terminal on a clean Mac). Both hang at the same 70% mark during the installer boot.
• Hardware Isolation: Tested RAM sticks individually; no change.
• Apple Diagnostics (D-key): Returned ADP000 (No issues found).
• NVRAM/SMC: Multiple deep resets (5+ chimes).
• Disk Check: Formatted the SSD externally as APFS/GUID. S.M.A.R.T. status is healthy and First Aid passes.

The "Safe Mode" Loop: After a downgrade to Sonoma and Catalina (with no success), I managed to finish a Sequoia install via Safe Mode and applied Root Patches + KDK. It works in Safe Mode, but as soon as I try a normal boot, it freezes right after the login screen (around 30% progress).

Verbose Mode: Saw some launchd fails (errno 2) and OCLP boot args persisting even after resets.

Since it only boots in Safe Mode (where drivers aren't loaded), I strongly suspect the NVIDIA GPU is failing when hardware acceleration kicks in. However, I'm wondering if there's any specific OCLP boot arg, firmware setting, or "magic" kext I can use to bypass this or verify if it's truly a hardware death sentence.

Any advice would help. Thanks!