So I was presented a simple trade offer: +2mm of effective height for uninterrupted mounting access to the load cell screw threads. However, the drawback was the difficulty of routing out the flat flexible cables, and holding the screen. 

I subscribe to the Pimaxian philosophy, so "why not both?":

The ESP32-S3-MINI is juuuuuust about small enough to fit side-on without going out of bounds, and allows easy access to the back of the PCB, where I plan to put all the FFC and debug pads. There's also enough space for current carrying wires.

It's also quite likely that the motor's FFC can be soldered directly to the PCB.

The effective height is currently about 27mm and length 80mm.