In that case, target disk mode presumably works and you don't need a special recovery port?

T2 and SSD can be intact and other stuff in the motherboard may be fried. Would target mode work in that case?

I guess it depends on what exactly is "fried"? I assume that the CPU is needed for target disk mode, but maybe a faulty GPU wouldn't matter?

But to be honest I have no idea -- I'm a software developer and I know very little about hardware.

> In that case, target disk mode presumably works and you don't need a special recovery port?

No good to you if the power connector on the logic board is screwed but the chips are fine.