Just read through the thread, nice truck! Good to see more Missouri members on here.
Regarding the third brake light, I also noticed negative reviews on Amazon when I bought mine. I ignored them and it's been fine for years now. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.
Also the difficulties you had trying to swap in the Bose head unit are pretty much par for the course. The Bose system uses external amplifiers so it's not sending the same type of signal to all the speakers. Individual factory Bose components almost never work with anything except the exact system they were designed for.
Regarding the third brake light, I also noticed negative reviews on Amazon when I bought mine. I ignored them and it's been fine for years now. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.
Also the difficulties you had trying to swap in the Bose head unit are pretty much par for the course. The Bose system uses external amplifiers so it's not sending the same type of signal to all the speakers. Individual factory Bose components almost never work with anything except the exact system they were designed for.