@metawops I have no idea what the factory sketch is supposed to do!
Thats why I made my HotHead example, to debug and get it running.
I studied the code and made the Hothead tempsensor and a FPS version (not included in the repository that I posted) to determine Frames Per Second.
I also added the LCD backlight ON command to HotHead, after both displays "went dead". This revived them.
The factory tft.ino included in the factory download just shows you how to learn the tft.drawsprite and sprite.drawString functions, with examples.
If the LilyGO is really stuck you can try the black reset button on the back and/or the "left" (when holding it vertical with the USB down) button marked "BOT" (boot) in various combinations to clear it
-Terry