OK, so FWIW if anyone happens to search on this; Problem is solved - turns out it was a bad wire at one of the harnesses directly below and feeding the IPM. An electrical guy who I found on Yelp with good recommendations managed to find it after tearing into the IPM a couple times.
Dealer of course was completely wrong and would have charged me $900 to replace a perfectly good condenser unit. Final repair was $250.
Thanks for all your help.
rich