Dear Arso,
The gemara in Chullin is a nice chap, but I understood it to mean that he has a thought to do the action for avodah zara, same goes for kiddushin. However, I vaguely remember seeing mefarshim that understand it as just thinking. But in that case it would be an issue of minus and not actual idol worship. (Thought is not worship. Though a statement is.) If you want to go back to discussing if there is a minus problem in Chabad or not, I’m all in!
Assuming that all pictures are not a problem of making images, a picture would not become an idol until it is worshipped or specifically created to be worshipped.
I only know of the rebbe picture by the bris from this site. I recall that someone had a reasonable explanation. If I find it I’ll link it. I never saw it in real life. I can’t say for certain if I ever was at a Lubavitcher Bris.
The mice picture also bothers me a little. But that I have seen in a bunch of places.
Try getting the origin and it will stop bothering you