Thank you for warning me about those "clips"! Turns out that they are easy to deal with! Just slide them, one at a time, toward the front of the door. Just before the window run, there is JUST enough space to slip them off the door! Clearly they made it this way!
After I slit all the clips off, the sill came right off! I didn't break a singe clip using this method and my sills are still perfect!
BTW, I just re-checked FSM and there is no mention of those clipse... I hate it when they leave critical items like that!
I solved my problem! After I bent it and couldn't get it back to my satisfaction, I bought one from a salvage yard!
When it arrived it had all the clips still intact - my old one only had ONE! So I did learn how it was installed, just like you described.