OK I couldn't wait and I disassembled it, cleaned it up, realized the two "flat fingers" were bent to where the mechanism couldn't move. Fixed those, scrubbed down all the contact surfaces, and re-assembled.
I am now in love
with this mechanism; it blows my mind
that they would come up with this "double-linked-flat spring" setup just to make the contact switch from one bar to the other when enough pressure/movement is applied. I guess for the AC compressor they wanted to make sure it was a full/solid contact when it engages, because this thing CLICKS into place.
So anyway, I'm happy to see that both my compressor switch and the master switch now operate properly after cleanup of both, and I've bought a replacement fan switch. Now on to verifying all the wiring will be signaling everything correctly to the master relay, the high speed relay, and through the resistors in the fan housing (all these are wired factory correctly as far as I can tell).
Onward!