Well done.
Helped me out as well.
I had a bricked Nano and a suspect FTDI board.
Tried it with a new Nano and the cheapo FTDI. Once I'd figured out you need the FTDI port selected, not the Nano, it worked a treat using the click Upload and press reset straightaway method. So FTDI working, now to try the bricked Nano, but not optimistic.
Whilst researching this, I came across the counterfeit FTDI chips and driver issue - this is where FTDI apparently issued a driver that bricks counterfeit FTDI chips. My cheapo was laser engraved on the chip and was coming up with 2.10 driver on Control Panel. 2.10 was the last driver issue that didn't mess the counterfeits. So I took a chance and upgraded from 2.10 to 2.12.28. No smoke yet so I guess the cheapo board has a genuine chip on it.