If you ripped off the ethernet and usb ports would it still be too thick? Maybe the hdmi also.

Ohh we did exactly that! https://i.imgur.com/QTRagEP.jpg

But it's not scalable, and I'm not particularly good at soldering. ;-)

Well they used the compute module so that's exactly what they did. And then they added back the ports where they needed.

I appreciate what they did and why. But no, that's not the exact same thing as the raspberry pi with it's ports de-populated. You need to provide power and ethernet (if required) yourself, I think.

The compute model is the right choice for an actual product (i.e. making more than one), but for someone trying to jam a pi into a thin space, removing the ports is almost as thin. Plus you don't also need a motherboard.

The compute module is also still waiting for it's BCM2711 refresh, another reason it's not the same thing. But when that does arrive, if it's just a case of swapping the modules that'll be a brilliant upgrade for this project.