I am trying to disconnect the track rod and the pinch bolt is not budging. Is there a trick?

This is number 2 pinch bolt issue in a week so starting to hate myself...

If I was you, I'd try to leave this area alone, reason being, the steering geometry is affected by the height that you secure the TRE in - its called the "s curve" and you will find that the TRE does not get fitted "fully home" and tightened - there is a small bolt that sets it height. Things do get a bit clumsy put its doable without disconnecting the TRE (I seem to remember) - remember, in that video clip, the guy left that area alone.

I marked the bolt so the height will be the same as before in order not to affect the steering geometry. I have seen guides and youtube videos of people removing this TRE pinch bolt with ease and mine just won't do that. The reason I wanted to take it out was so that I could remove the whole hub (see my other post regarding changing shock absorbers) and press the main pinch bolt out on hydraulic press at work.

But seems I can't even do that. Honestly, this week I have completely changed my perspective on VW from moderately positive to quite negative: I had a boot flood, a simple shock / spring replacement has turned into a week-long nightmare. Just now (10pm) I managed to get the whole thing together again so it's conditionally said roadworthy. Managed to put the new shock assembly in by dropping front lower arm, undoing top mount, pushing driveshaft in, and dropping ARB link too. It was a VERY hard job to put it all together. Would definitely be easier if the main pinch bolt could come out.

But my main pinch bolt is mullered. So tomorrow I am booking the car in to a garage - let them remove the mullered pinch bolt, and the one on the other side which I have not touched yet. I just hope they don't make it worse than I did! At least I can drive the car now to a garage

My VW dealer did seem to have trouble getting one out when they were changing the wheel bearings - I think that they ended up grinding the head off one bolt - and part of the flat/stop on the bracket - then they fitted an ordinary bolt. Needless to say, I replaced both boths with new items and nuts and greased them up.