Welcome to the forum Michael you'll find the forum a friendly and inclusive community, and some very knowable people only too happy to help. You find plenty of banter, but you wont find any of the "intensity" you come across on social media generally. Have you had the Expanda from new ???
My lid did the same with the storm covers, partly because my privacy mesh is permanently attached and I increased the struts to higher pressures. I can vaguely recall the strut expert mentioning a significant increase in NM will result in less additional physical pressure than you would otherwise think. ie 100 MN increase isnt significant in regards to extra effort to compress them. I also replaced the lid strut brackets which are attached to the lid with a much larger version. The replacement brackets are glued and screwed to the lid. The original little brackets are barely upto the task in my opinion, and I suspect the firmer strut would not have helped. The new brackets provide much better support and much better load spread to the mounting point on the lid. The vans at my factory, so Ill grab a pic if I remember (remind me if the pic doesnt appear)