I've replaced a few Ford seat elements over the years on my personal vehicles and those are the cheapest looking OEM Ford parts I've seen.Thank you for the write up. The descriptions were spot on. Seat heater works great now. The break in my heating element was the same as shown in your photo. What a goofy design for the heating element to go under the seat retainers.
You can get a style of heating element where it's a grid, and it's trimmable. Damage to one small area does not disable the whole thing.