Guy Mayraz <guy.mayraz@unimelb.edu.au> writes:

> (ii) change the org-cdlatex math
> symbol to something totally obscure that wouldn't interfere with my normal
> work?

For what it is worth, option (ii) can be archived with something like this,

(with-eval-after-load 'org
  (define-key org-cdlatex-mode-map "`" nil)
  (org-defkey org-cdlatex-mode-map "¨" 'cdlatex-math-symbol)
  (org-defkey org-cdlatex-mode-map "'" 'org-cdlatex-math-modify))