HEres a pic of the assemblies togive you an idea how clean they were.

https://i.imgur.com/vVkd9e7.png

Cool, was just giving opinion on what I saw, the good part is your addressing potential issues and sealing.. I would do the same

minor delam wouldn’t cause the main seal to lose squeeze would it?

I mean that thing was rock solid when it was done.

I doubt it unless it was crushing or shifting, if it was not soft it should be ok, obviously you wanna see no delam but yours is not wasted it looks like

I was going through the same thing with water in the boat for a couple years. Ended up being my sea water pump. There's a weep hole on it that water was coming out of. Rebuilt the pump, bearings and seals and haven't turned on the bilge pump sense.

you had to do steering pin. that is a possible leak. I assume that is when you converted to hyd steering? how fast a leak? check those exhaust block off plates. just cuz the side that shows is pretty means very little. when transom assys go back on, install drives and take it to the boat ramp on a slow day. dunk the boat till transom assys are under water, grab a couple of beers and sit in the engine compartment with a flashlight. without engines installed I mean... oh, and there is no such thing as transom rot paranoia. if the whole world really is out to get you, you aren't paranoid. and all bodies of water are ALWAYS out to get everybody's transoms.

thanks for the tip but I’m not just finding water in the bilge. I’m finding it in the transom cut out which means it’s something in the transom assembly.

I found a better picture of the transom cut out in question after it was sanded and sealed. It looks pretty damn mint to me.

Dont mind the brown that was bellows adhesive.

https://i.imgur.com/dBRAR6e.png

one more possibility do the bravos have speedometer hoses on them maybe leaking there?

seems like the lower cut out between the bottom bolts is lower than it should be.may have a weak sealing point there.