I also reread the beginning and you mentioned that you think the panels may not have connectors on them and that may make it easier to put them into a combiner box or two than buying expensive MC-4 connectors. When you get them or confirm what connectors they have you can decide.
I bought some used panels that had the old MC-3 connectors and I replaced them all with MC-4 connectors. I actually only needed to replace the four panels that were connecting to microinverters because the other seven were in a 7S string but I had the kit and it made my system more flexible if I wanted to add optimizers later for some shading.
Lots of cost benefit options.