Okay, I was mistaken! I was inadvertently separating the front glass (shattered) from the digitizer, not the LCD. Once the edges were free of the frame, the assembly lifted up revealing more layers of glass underneath; the actual LCD I presume.
[image|756583]
The lesson being that if the front glass is severely fragmented, it can be impossible to pry up the edges even if the whole front is taped over. And sliding the opener picks between the front glass proper and the very thin glass of the digitizer panel is possible while they are warm.