[Nexus 7 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] VonDerThWood:
***TL;DR AT THE BOTTOM***

*^*EDIT 2!!*^*

Utilizing Cerberus, I was able to get passed the boot animation into the lock screen, though the Launcher is, for all intents and purposes, nonexistent. However, I was able to install Nova Launcher and can go to a home screen just fine. THIS IS NOT SATISFACTORY. I want to get back to STOCK Launcher, but it apparently does not exist anymore. I've managed to copy over my backup of Launcher2.apk, but it still refuses to acknowledge its existence. Can I get an update.zip that'll reinstall the default launcher from someone? I can boot into recovery via ROM Manager now I suppose!

+++EDIT!+++

+++~~~I have discovered that my problem is not the device being stuck in boot up, but that the boot animation will not cease--as +in the device is actually powered on, just displaying the boot animation like a screen saver. I cannot boot into recovery as I get +the Google splash screen and it never goes anywhere, my bootloader is freezing every time I plug it into my computer, and the +drivers will not install. My computer cannot detect fastboot and I can't connect to the Nexus via adb either. I CAN access internal +storage but that's about the extent of what I can do.+++~~~

Long version:

I decided I wanted to change the App Drawer icon from stock to a Nexus X that inverted its colours when pressed. I found the icon, converted it to png, inverted the colours and everything was going fine.

After a while I finally managed to find the right icons to replace in the system apk file "launcher2.apk". "ic_allapps.png" and "ic_allapps_pressed.png" or something very similar. I simply replaced them with my two icons, installed my modified launcher2.apk, and that was it.

Immediately, my home wouldn't open at all, no matter how many times I pressed the home button. It just would not exit the app I had up. So I started backing and ended up in an infinite back loop. I powered off the device, waited a minute, and powered it back on.

It came to the usual "Google" screen with the unlocked symbol at the bottom, no problems. However, then it started playing the boot animation. The boot animation never stopped. It looped infinitely. I tried resetting the tablet a few times for the same result. It was after 3 am and I had to get up for work in 4 and a half hours. I thought that maybe it was gonna take a while. So I flipped the Nexus over while it was "booting up" and went to sleep.

When I woke up and checked the tablet at 7:30, it was STILL booting up. Obviously I had screwed something up.

Now, stupid me, I had never flashed CWM recovery on my Nexus 7 (haven't had it that long), so all I'm stuck with is STOCK Recovery. I'm pretty sure I can rescue the Nexus by factory resetting it or something similar, but I'd rather try to save it first. All I modified was a LAUNCHER application, so I'm pretty sure the current state of the Nexus itself shouldn't be too far gone. Is there any way to save the Nexus WITHOUT a data wipe? And if the data wipe DOESN'T fix my problem, is it possible to somehow flash a stock ROM through stock Android Recovery?

***TL;DR***

I modified launcher2.apk and replaced "ic_allapps.png" and "ic_allapps_pressed.png" with two customized .png files (which I renamed to their appropriate file names). Now my Nexus is stuck on the boot animation indefinitely. I would like to save all of my data, as a data wipe would be inconvenient, but if I must do one I shall. I am on a stock ROM and a stock Recovery. If a data wipe/factory reset will not save my device, is it possible to flash a stock ROM through regular Android Recovery?

===Related but irrelevant to the problem===

Is it completely impossible to change the stock App Drawer icon to something different? I'd rather not have to get a different launcher app just to create a Nexus theme! I did a little more research and found that I should've modified the "all_apps_button_icon.xml" file as well, but I have NO idea how to do that.

Many thanks,

VonDerThWood.