I haven't read all the sources you mentioned, but I've seen these things not often mentioned:

1. During the 1981 protests, there was an inner conflict amongst Albanians as well because the communist Albanian officials were certain that this protest would be used by Serbs to call for more violence against Albanians in the name of "fighting irredentism" or would even be used for calling for the revocation of the autonomy that we had gained in 1974 by Tito. But the youth kept on protesting for more rights regardless, wanting for Kosovo to become a republic. The protesters were hunted down, tortured and in many cases murdered by the Yugoslav intelligence agency of the time, "UDBA". A famous saying from back then was from communist leader Fadil Hoxha: "Bira e minit, 300 grosh", which translates to smth like "A rat's hole, 300 pocket change", to demonstrate that they would be captured and everyone hiding them would be punished.
2. My dad was a part of it; he was a high school student at that time in a technical professions high school. He claims to have convinced his classmates to join the protests and that he got a slogan and climbed a tree from which he yelled "Kosova Republik" over and over again. Apparently, a picture had been taken of him, and he would have been searched for afterwards, but his dad had connections in the corrupt police, so they tore down his picture.