Great article! It's super common to have trigger points in the vastus lateralis under and just anterior to the IT band, so yeah -- it's gonna hurt when you foam roll your lateral quads. You can sort-of almost foam roll the TFL, which usually is also full of trigger points.

Arguably you can stretch the TFL, as this article argues, though I can honestly never get a good stretch from this "best damn stretch": https://b-reddy.org/the-best-damn-it-band-stretch-ever/

I prefer a half-kneeling active (glute squeeze) hip flexor stretch to reduce hypertonic hip flexors anyway, and you could theoretically focus that on the TFL a bit by adducting the base leg a smidge, leaning diagonally away from the TFL, and reaching up and behind you.

I'm not a big fan of stretching in the first place, as almost univerally I've found the issues with a "tight TFL" to be gluteus medius / minimus & gluteus maximus weakness (hypertonic / locked long) along with hip flexor compensation (hypertonic / locked short) -- as you mentioned in your article.

Typically RNT techniques (band or other pressure at lateral knee to cause gluteus medius / minimus to fire) to reduce dynamic genu valgus work well. For example, banded bridges, banded squats / sumo walk, and banded frog pumps work great. Single leg glute bridge progressions tend to be very helpful as well.

Have you ever seen an anterior femoral cutaneous nerve peripheral entrapment by the TFL and surrounding fascia? I've seen it in 2 or 3 patients -- loss of sensation and tingling because the TFL is so hypertonic / locked short. It results in some mild gait abnormalities because the body will refuse to increase neural tension with hip extension on the affected side.