How to handle factually incorrect guides?

That's a great question, and it's one we've been trying to answer for a while now. That guide—like so much other content on our site—is user-contributed, so we can't control whatever path the author decides to take on their repair journey. We recently added a new flag to our collection to add to guides like this: the Scenic Route flag. The addition of this flag will let other users know that there's an easier way to remove the optical drive, but that this guide will still get the job done. If we're lucky, it might even persuade someone to create the "correct" guide themselves.

It's also important to mention that this guide isn't totally worthless just because it follows a slightly more circuitous route. You mention the quick release mechanism, and that is certainly the preferred method for optical drive removal if it's accessible. In the event that the quick release on someone's laptop is broken or malfunctioning, though, it may be necessary for them to disassemble the entire laptop and take the drive out, as shown in the existing guide.