Yea, i did cut the trace connecting SDA to ESP32-S3 Pin-16/GPIO46 and was able to flash it without pressing any buttons. But when i connected the pull-up resistor R19 to ESP32-S3 Pin-15/GPIO3 , i could not flash it. Using ESP32-S3 Pins 4 (GPIO 4) , Pins 5 (GPIO 5) , Pins 6 (GPIO 6) or Pins 7 (GPIO 7) might work to connect to SDA.
Actually... The ESP32 has configurable internal pullup resistors that can be used for the I2C pins. I think this means we don't need the external I2C pull-up resistors R18 and R19 at all. This means Pin-16/GPIO46 can be used for SDA after all.