I still have some old 200lb Varivas power rings lying around and these I can put hooks much heavier in wire gauge than the decoy pike 5/O into and they won't deform. Pretty sure the material is different! Oh I'm using the duel gt plier too so it's not due to the plier.
I did toy with owner and it seems the 220lb or #10 deforms the least because I also tried #11/11H and they seem to have a larger gap between the wires after I put hooks into them.
I tried decoy rings too and they weren't much better than the current Varivas. I guess owner is now the best there is for heavy gauge hooks? Back in 01 owner rings got ripped off my poppers in Indonesia and I've been skeptical about them ever since.