I had a little nosey inside the SJC the other day, I couldn't see anything that stood out as serial pads (most likely because as you mention the cable is the serial), the SJC does open easily and fits back together with no issues if you were curious (I do also own a battery SJ so maybe I will do a compare of the boards).
If in the worst case I do need to solder some jumpers on and re-program that way, it wouldn't be the end of the world as I am comfortable with that.
I am curious about the Signal Owl thing you mention, I'll have a quick google (for some reason I feel like maybe I have looked into that in the past with my Signal Owl (sensing a theme here haha).
I have made a support ticket and I will be completely transparent with them about the issue, just hoping there is a way to probe that serial. It just bugs me that a COM session is initiated and only disconnects of the switch is in the off position or the cable is unplugged.
Cheers for the link, I have made a support case, wish me luck.