MSI B650 Tomahawk won't post, stuck on orange debug, two different ram kits tested

[barren brook]

Have a barebones test setup as I prepare to salvage my old PC for this upgrade: MSI B650 Tomahawk board, amd 9800x3d with a noctua nh-d15 cooler mounted (and pasted), and so far I've tried one kit of Corsair Vengeance ddr5 6000 cl30 (both individual sticks and pairs in different slots and orders) and I've begun trying a kit of G.Skill Trident but so far having tried them only as a pair I get the same result, orange debug light.

I have flashed BIOS to the latest version via USB stick, the two times I did both times appeared successful.

I fear that I might have left a trace cotton fiber or two on the socket from attempting to clean my cpu socket of my finger grease (after I accidentally brushed it when dropping the cpu in) or that I might have bent a pin unintentionally when I tried to clean the grease with an alcohol pad on because I didn't realize that the pins would grab on like velcro immediately. I visually inspectd them the best I could before seating the CPU and they appeared uniform but maybe i missed a bit of cotton fiber debris. I can include a video I took of the socket before seating the CPU if anyone wants to take a look. I can try recording another video using a better quality iphone camera since my phone sucks

note: When I attempt to post, there is no GPU or anything else plugged in but my psu cable, keyboard and a display port cable to my monitor. (not sure if I need to be using HDMI or Display Port specifically to see post or if I need a USB 2.0 keyboard to see a post screen but my only kb is usb 3 and my monitors are DP and DVI only, I have an old VGA monitor with an hdmi adaptor as well not sure if they'll show post though). (I have the two pin 8 pin cpu headers plugged in, and the 24 pin as well.)

So far i've noticed: turning on the board if using ram in slots 2 and 4 I get to the point of an orange debug light but no further. I've tried to let it sit and wait in case of ram training but I don't know how long that takes or if there is something I should be looking for. I try to give it at minimum 10 minutes every time but maybe thats not enough.
my 4th dimm slot also looks like it's not properly seated into the PCB, and the last time I tried to insert ram the bottom dimm slot lock actually unseated itself and I had to pop it back into place which is worrying.

So far I have tried:
reseating the RAM several times and tried launching with individual sticks only.
Tried my original kit of Corsair cl30 6000
tried a different kit of similar specs from G.Skill cl 30 6000
reseated my CPU cooler using the -7mm offset specifications of my Noctua cooler specified for AM5 CPU's.

I have several questions
do I need a keyboard plugged in to see a post screen?
do I need a specific type of display connection to see the post screen?
What are the chances that both of the ram kits I bought came with are faulty ram versus the board being faulty?
What are the chances it's the CPU socket being damaged / dirty?
What are the chances of my CPU being faulty ?