I completely agree with you - I was ill prepared. I started this job back in 2012 on the machine in my signature and for several stellar reasons my whole life basically went on hold until I just picked sleeveing back up as a hobby recently (for another build). The night I started de-pinning I was helping my son with math homework and after that I had a few beers... a great receipt to screw up something.
I appreciate the information you just shared, I too have run across this information and wanted to be extra sure that I was recreating the PSU cables that came with the unit (albeit shorter) exactly so i cut a few apart and follow each wire from the PSU to the VGA 6 and 8 pins, making notes along the way. The wires did not seem to go from the PSU to the VGA in the same order (or even a mirror of the order). I am going this morning to pickup a multi-meter, if I just make sure I have grounds going to the ground pins and 12v going to the required 12v's then it that correct? Will it be less then optimal?
Also, how can i be sure what the pin out is of my gpu? I have a Gigabyte 2080 Super...
I hooked these wires up (incorrectly) and thank God it didn't fry my GPU, things just didn't boot. I unplug the GPU power cables and boot again and I get the obligatory 'power down and plug up your GPU dummy' message. So I know I've just screwed up the power.
tl;dr
If i just use the multimeter to find my 12v cables where do i pin them into the connector on the gpu? just like the gent above shared in his picture? thank you for helping me, I promise I am not a total moron, though I challenge myself on that from time to time
they don't call me the ruiner for nothing