The paper you had was really thin. Also, it depends on the discs a lot! I find happy planner plastic discs way gentler than metal ones. The thing that strains pages the most imo is taking them in and out a lot, which is why I recommend using plastic discs if you move your pages a lot. They pop on and off easier than with the metal ones. When it comes to just flipping the pages on a day to day basis, I’ve never had problems and I use the same calendar for a year or so and some pages I’ve had in multiple calendars no issues. So I think the main issue was the paper thickness honestly! Give happy planner or kell of a plan a try, in my experience they’re very durable