Well, the parts came in early and I knocked it out today.
The good news is the Mazda OEM LED GT lights are plug & play with the Sport/Touring versions. The Sport & Touring (non lit) have the same plug but the Touring of course only powers the reverse lights. This shows how lame Mazda was. Everything is there but Mazda chose not to add a bulb and power up the red lights on the Touring and Sport models, just the GT and higher trims. Everything is identical and it is plug and play.
One has to remove the interior liftgate molding. The good news is that is it SUPER easy to do, took me 10 minutes. You need the correct plastic fork tool they sell on Amazon to remove these hidden fastener panels.
Amazon Auto Trim Tool Kit
See website for removal info -
Mazda Lift Gate Trim Removal Diagrams
Now for the bad news. In order to access the lights, the exterior outside panels must be removed. Once again, you need the right tool. In addition, one must remove the metal nuts that holds the trim. Access is found on the inside of the liftgate (molding removed). It uses a 10mm socket, and one must remove ALL the nuts you find.
Popping the exterior molding is not for the faint of heart but go slow and use the right tool. As is the case with these hidden fastener plastic clips, they can break. I ended breaking 2 of them but a little quick-set JB Weld and in 10 minutes the broken clips were fixed and reinstalled.
The end result. Remember, I still have the OEM Touring brake lights, only modification to them was removing the incandescent bulb and replacing it with an LED bulb that is way brighter than the OEM incandescent bulb.
BEFORE
AFTER
AFTER w/brakes applied