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OK, a little more on this.
The new latches came with a new cable that has an updated attachment method. Running the cable requires more door dissassembly than I wanted to do, and I'd read that you can just use the new latch with the old cable, so I did that.
And it worked...until it didn't. And, pro tip, when it stops working, the door won't open from the outside, either, which is awkward. Fortunately, the failure was intermittent and I got the car open.
So, the work around for this is to install the top of the old latch (the part that rotates) on the bottom of the new latch (the part that screws to the door). It's actually a little plastic tab on the bottom of the old latch that broke; that tab is what the spring rests against, and it's what provides tension. The tab cracked and flexed, so it's breakage wasn't obvious until you pushed on it.
Interesting note--the bottom of the latch is the same part R/L, just flipped. So, in theory, if your RH latch breaks, you could just swap it with the LH latch. But, again, the new part is $23, so...it's not really worth disassembling two doors.
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