Electical Trouble-shooting

I've heard of similar circumstances but never experienced them myself. Yes, disconnecting the battery for a short period of time does reset the computer(s) back to the original setting in some cases. Electrostatic Discharge can wreak havoc on electronics. Ford has gone to great lengths over the years to protect their modules and computers from frying due to short- circuits and even the occasional "oops I hooked up the jumper-cables backward". It's possible that the modules needed to be reset. It's also possible that the extra ozone and humidity in the air caused a connection problem you cured by wiggling a loose fuse. Another possibility: the Body Control Module that controls the Keyless Entry and other security features on your car, may have received erroneous signals too many times and locked itself down. Some thieves have frequency generators to defeat remote systems and many systems "lock out" if they get the wrong code too many times. Lightning generates radio frequency signals - IDK. Just an educated guess.