Agreed Peter and it wouldn't have been practical to push down on rear of hood to ease release as you can with lever position.
Note they planned for simultaneous release of catches using individual solenoids though. It could even have worked out cheaper without lever, cable, brackets and adjuster not to mention installation time.
BTW try and get some lube into cable inner as well. There is a lot of friction as cable turns 90° through the routing tube. Also the return springs are collectively unnecessarily strong IMHO.
