I decided to take a few resistance measures between the pads of the capacitors in the battery area of the logic board. 
Among the top 6 capacitors, the two on the left and the two on the top show values ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand kOhms, increasing over time as they charge up - however, the two on the right actually show an almost inexistent electrical resistance. I believe they may be at fault here, they may have leaked or shorted internally and now the two pads are electrically bridged, resulting in the boot failure I'm experiencing. 
Does this makes sense at all? 
I think it's time to attempt a recap...