Can't edit clover boot args, stuck in safe boot on T480s

Specs: thinkpad T480s 20L7A01VHH, i5-8250, 256GB samsung M.2 NVMe SSD, 12GB ram (8GB soldered), MX150 (disabled)

Been a long lurker of this sub, this is my first post, asking for help. Originally I had macos 10.14 successfully installed on my SSD partition (win 10 dual boot), almost full functionality using kk1987's t480s hackintosh repo on github.

After I went into terminal and typed

sudo nvram boot-args="-x"

to try to boot in safe mode, I couldn't boot into macos anymore, getting constant kernel panic. Config.plist boot tab does not show "-x" in the additional boot args box.

Upon inspection of the "options" tab in clover (2.4, r4700), the boot args are

dart=0 debug=0x100 nv_disable=1 bpr_probedelay=200 bpr_initialdelay=400 -v bpr_postresetdelay=400 -x

I tried editing out "-x" but verbose says it's still booting in safe mode. Booting from installation usb and recovery also ends with kernel panic. Rechecking the options page shows boot args with "-x" (expected as the clover options page is temporary)

I added "-s" single user mode to clover boot args at some point, /sbin/fsck -fy said my drive was ok.

Eventually I gave up and redid my vanilla installation usb (unibeast originally), and wiped my mac partition. However when loaded into clover on usb, options page show "-x" in the boot args again. It has become a ghost haunting me for typing that sudo cmd into terminal in the first place...

Any ideas on where the boot args are stored and how I could reset the boot args?