Quoted from OLDPINGUY:

Hi Matt, yup, one of those situations where I am damned if I do, and damned if I don't.
Many vendors, including myself, overlap with others in the factories we use.
When the first few batches came in, and the caps came off easy...we had complaints.
When we requested the factory change the glue in our production, to solve this, we heard
from others like yourself, that they were too hard. Tough one to fix.
In my humble opinion only, we sell so little 5050 SMD without a lens.
My belief is that a Clear lens, not only spreads the light better, but also protects the SMD and circuitry.
I have had games that had SMD no lens for several years, and carbon dust builds up on them as well.
Much easier to clean the lens, and keeping the exposed circuitry protected, but in all these cases, bulbs are
so reasonable anyway.!