Agreed, valves are like lightbulbs. The thermal shock of switching on is more severe than metal loss while running, so the more you switch the heaters on and off teh shorter the valve life.
The risk is that this could stretch it further. Squeezing it forces the mesh pattern to distort slightly to accommodate the stretching that's already taken place, but it's not going to be 100% perfect any way you do it.
My daughter tried to explain how that was really deep and worked at multiple levels as both a metaphor for Black Mirror as a series and for the whole episode.
Over my head, unfortunately...
Can you explain what I'm looking at in this photo please? I'm trying to understand how you are choosing the best matching grain.
The piece at bottom left is an almost perfect match for the worktop. 🤣