Well I guess the short answer is “No”
Everything went fine with the battery connected, which I doubt is the recommened course.

Detailed report for future reference:
The bottom panel on my SC17 (758-41-2633-T1) required a T6 torx head. For the SATA caddy I used a 00 philips.

I left the battery connected after finding the long flat molex connector difficult to wiggle out from the mainboard. Figuring I’m more likely to damage something trying than cause a short I left it alone, connected.

Onto the SATA bay, After removing the single philips screw, Sliding out the HDD caddy required lifting out the speaker, which required no extra tools or special care. Left it connected as well.

Steam would not launch the games I cloned over to the new SSD until I cleared the downlod cache. Go figure.

Hopefully this will serve to help anyone with a similar question in the future.