Hey everyone...
I just wanted to followup here, to let you know that I did purchase and install the OEM trailer brake controller aboutva week ago.
The installation was fairly straight forward. I will admit it took me longer than anticipated (3 hours) but that was mostly because I used kid gloves when disassembling as not to damage anything. Some of the harness connections were tough to disconnect as I wasn't familiar with them.
As advised here, I took it to a dealer (happened to be the selling dealer), so they could activate and register it. They did, and it appears it's working. I won't know for sure whether it is or not until I hook the trailer up however, I'm confident it will work out fine.
Thanks for all the help !
Some pictures attached of the installation.