Everything you wrote was true - there is more to add, notably, the anomolies of the sensors and their interconnecting cable coming from the left wheel well.
For some reason - the lines from these temp sensors (be they thermistors or thermocouples) were "burned through" (my words) at some point where they went back into the electronics bay where eventually they are all 'read' by the electronics aboard the Shuttle and their readings sent back to NASA.
Couple this with the excess drag on the left wing and we have our culprit.
If in fact the the left wing upper surface became superheated and without the amount of heat resistence tile that is on the underneath surface, could that heating have caused the sensor failure? I wonder if the electronic's bay is contiguous to the area where the wing and fuselage meet? If so, that area of flex as the shuttle rolled over onto its left side would take a great deal of loading.