I honestly do not know, so next time I have power to it, I will definitely check out if the door has any affect on it's power. Yes, I do have the courtesy lights and mine is one of the first 8,000 built so I'm pretty sure it was still standard at that point.

Interesting info you shared and I thank you for that!

EDIT: Had another thought for why the connector is so far back in there. If this is for one of the many option switches, they have a good size/length harness that would easily reach back in there.