1999 to 2005 VW Golf MK4 MKIV hood latch operation fix

I had a problem with the hood latch on my 2002 golf gti.
at 1:50 you can clearly see the critical 2 pins that must be touching and interacting in the right way for the pop out latch system to work.
it wasnt popping out like it should when you initially lift the hood to crack it open; and it the latch also wasnt going back into the engine bay as you close the hood (you had to manually push it back in, then close the hood).
so i messed around with it a bit, and figured out the critical points, and did some metal bending - fixed it up! hope this helps!
i'm not sure why mine was off in the first place, but i could visually see that tab at the "2nd critical point" was bent down, which i could tell was not as it was from factory. i suspect this is a common issue.