For anyone following this, the lift struts arrived today, 15 minute installation. You will need new pivot bolts unless you know a trick I do not - for my 03 the part number is 68961-35050 and you obviously need 2. I'm sure there is some trick to getting the old ones to release but I couldn't find it and everything I read said you need new pivot bolts. All the bolts had a lot of loctite on them and the new pivot bolts came pre-treated with threadlock and I added new Loctite to the upper bolts.

FWIW, I too went the Amazon route for the hood lifts which are working fine. I avoided the hatch struts because of stories of them being to strong that they were breaking at the upper junction and then punching a hole in the body sheet metal. Now that the OEM are $60-$70 for the pair, no reason to not be cautious and stay OEM (that last 17 years).