Outer door latch plastic ring broke Options

[era vulgaris]

So suddenly yesterday I could no longer open my passenger door from the outside. I took the outside handle off and found that the plastic ring broke, that pushes on the lever to activate the latch.

First of all, it seems idiotic to make a part like this out of plastic! But that aside, can I replace just the plastic part, or do I need to buy an entire outside handle?

[era vulgaris]

Just tried installing the new door latch cam from Pelican, but the plastic is much thinner and more flexible than the original. The arms of the cam just bend and the door won't open.
And I did remove and relubricate the latch mechanism (basically a wd-40 bath). It helped as far as the cam being able to push the latch all the way when the door is open (although I could still see some bending of the cam arms happening). But when the door is closed the cam isn't strong enough to move the latch to open the door.

Has anyone tried the door latch cam from 914rubber?
If it's the same as the Pelican one, I'll just place a WTB in the classifieds for an original.