I had hoped the removal and installation of the tailgate handle assembly would be easy, based on many of the posts I read on this forum. It was not to be.
After I removed the 3 screws holding the handle assembly in place and releasing the two cables, no amount of maneuvering, fiddling, tugging or pulling would allow the assembly to come out of its "nest". I came upstairs and reread some of the posts and one suggested removing the inner tailgate skin, another said to remove the tailgate top trim (spoiler) which is held on by 3M two way tape.
Neither sounded appealing so my solution, for those of you who run into the same problem, was to cut out a small piece of the plastic directly in front of the latch assembly. I used a Dremel (rotary) tool with a small cutting disk and sliced off about 3/4" of plastic. Only took a few seconds and then the old assembly came out easily and the new one went right in. Photo below taken after the cut and old latch removed. Arrows show where the cut was made. The missing plastic is way up behind the handle and is not visible in any way.