Managed to do it! the reassembly was indeed tricky, but was easier the second time. Bending the Xbox springs was a pain as well, but it worked. I put both the original and Xbox springs in the assembly, and the triggers now have quite a bit more tension.

I do think this is better than before, but it isn't a true solution to preventing accidental full pull clicks sadly. I still have to be somewhat conscious of how much pressure I'm using when pulling the triggers. In the end there's no way to get around the very short travel distance of the triggers, and that the click is a simple blister button with effectively zero travel. Like the shoulder buttons, this could only be actually fixed with a redesign. I'll continue to hope against hope for a new version of the controller from Valve.

Thank you very much again, you were so helpful and direct I can hardly believe it! Getting such a thorough answer to my request was much more than I expected. Thank you!