Did you still need help with mounting the pack to your tripod?
I'll admit I did have plenty of time at the national bird protection centre to try the bag out. It was very busy with people coming for binoculars, so I was more or less left to myself to dismount the show model from the display tripod and fit it to my own tripod to try on. So yeah that helps if you've seen it attached first.
As for the stiffness, I'll doubt it will get much softer. The 'click' button for the bottom plate (it's more a back plate, the bottom plate would be inside the bag) is to make for 'smaller' storage. For wear it's loose so you get a nice cushion on your lower lumbar region (bum).
As for the straps that go to the side poles (the two poles wrapped in velcro that will sit closest to your back on the sides) I ever so slightly extend the first section of the poles so a little room appears for the strap to be attached to. But in fairness I have a big tripod, I dont think it's suited for a small compact travel tripod. I wouldn't dream of using my travel tripod in combination with this bag since the bag would be dwarfing the tripod
It's about 42 cm from the top of the bag down to the part where the velcro ends so shorter leg sections will be hidden under the velcro. Not a bad thing per se since you can permanently extend the parts hidden under the velcro without really loosing function. I mean what's the point of making the legs smaller than the bag, the bag won't shrink.
As for my tripod: Gitzo GT 2830
For me the center column is not extended at all, the red top strap surrounds the dial to loosen and/or fasten my center column. 98% of the time the center column is down for me, so not a big issue. Loosening the red top strap is quickly done if needed. The red strap is connected to a black strap that goes down, here you can adjust things to a proper fit. So extending really shouldn't be necessary.
If needed I could try fitting it to my much smaller Sirui T-025x but that only has a center column that goes 'up' (the whole tripod is made for being as small as possible) I wouldn't want to mount my ATX to that tripod, it's only used with my Nikon ED50
As for magnets... there's a magnet attachment? Haven't located that.