It came to pass that HT PLA melted in the same trouble spot as PETG, though still not in the nose.

There was some static stress from the chopstick pressing in, but not in the exact place which melted.

It was back to good old epoxy.    Used the knife & gravity to try to build up a bead where it melted.  The best way to epoxy it might be to masking tape the opening & let it sit facing down on the masking tape.

That area still isn't the hottest area.  It's believed the holes create a shielding layer of gas.  The solid band doesn't have the shielding gas.

The mane changes were lowering the heat break from 50mm to 45mm so less gas could be getting sucked in.  Then, the big solid band was flipped from the smaller removable side to the bigger fixed side.