Nespi+ case

[korn16ftl3]

So I really like the nespi + case for the pi 3b, because it has the same gpio pinout and same basic functionality I’m assuming it’s only the cosmetic that keep a pi4 from physically working In the case.

Some observations are bringing a few questions to mind for my intended purposes:

I’m currently building a multicast and wanted to change the latching and momentary switches on the nespi case to the ones on the cabinet. I’m looking at the switches solder points and I see 6 points for each switch but on the pcb it appears that only 2 solder points have traces going to them.

Would it be safe to assume that I can simply remove these switches attach some longer leads and at the end of those attach the appropriate switches?

Power supply:
I bought some female usb C breakout boards and intend on changing the micro usb power input to the needed USB C to adapt (and update) to the power supply for my pi4. My question here is, is it safe to supply power to the pi4 through the GPIO header? I slightly recall the old pi3s when powered directly through the gpio header bypassed some circuit protection for the pi, is this also the case with the pi4? Should I just attach a male usb c breakout board to the safe shutdown circuit of the nespi+ case to plug directly into the pi4 usb c power input so I don’t bypass any protections?

The Gpio header on the pi case pcb:

There are 6 pins populated on the header that plugs into the gpio of the pi, red and black are obviously the power wires for the pie but I’m seeing 4 others orange is pin 3 (Gpio/sda1) yellow is pin 5 (Gpio/slc1) green is pin 7 (Gpio/gclk) white is pin 8 (tx/ mart/gpio). I’m guessing that these have to do with the safe shutdown feature on the case. Would the safe shutdown feature still work if I were to re-route the power from the gpio pins to the usb C input?