Reading all of these comments prior to beginning the work, I didn’t even try to investigate the type of connector my laptop had. I just DIDN’T attempt removal of this connector, worked around it, and as others have mentioned, it is truly unnecessary to remove this connector. You can move the subwoofer (after removal of its other screws) out of the way just enough to slip out the old drive and slip in the new drive.
The lower left screw hole of the replacement drive purchased from iFixit doesn’t align with the screw hole of the body of the computer. Doesn’t seem to be a problem as the drive seems to be quite stable with the other 2 screws, and the “fit” within the drive area.
