ok so likely i mooshed them myself; i was like “they say extra long, protected cells don’t fit but let me try anyway…” smash.
so obviously don’t do that
but there’s a thread going elsewhere about the light in general, and a few others have brought up the smashed spring problem (and i assume they weren’t as dense as me as to attempt to use protected cells in a light that specfically says not to).
there’s even an image, in post #1190ish of this thread.