Okay, whew. I'd assume it's actually some artifact of the molding process, or possibly it was originally designed to have two springs but they decided not to bother. Either way, thanks, I feel better.
Actually, I wasn't planning to sand them at all -- I was going to leave as much of the three 'struts' as I could, so that they'd continue to be what the plunger hits.
But I'll go ahead and do it the safe way. Thanks for the advice.
Have you had any problems with it after doing that?
I'm mainly wondering why the "standard" advice is to drill it out with a spade-tip bit rather than cut the three small connectors; whether there's any problem with what seems to me to be the 'easy way'.