Oh yeah, doing it "my way" does not produce any fault codes that may be associated with splicing into other circuits.
I had to take the whole glove box out, pull away the center console panel, remove the lower hvac ducting, pull the fuse panel, and trace the wiring for each item while checking for constant/ignition-only power to figure out how to make it work... but once I had it sorted I decided to run an "external" wire. This way I can return it to stock without taking anything apart.

There may be other ways but this one should be easy enough for just about anyone.

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2005 4.8is