Why are you only looking at E-Flite brand ? The retract is a standard steerable unit that's available branded and unbranded ...... many being much cheaper than the one you linked to.
But one factor that you will not change - the overall unit size ... if you keep to the E-Flite size retract overall size - the pin will be same ... it is unlikely to be larger diameter. To have larger diameter - you most likely will have to go up in overall retract unit size - and that means heavier and need to cut fuselage to fit.
One way to reduce damage such as bent leg, is to fit a sprung leg to the pin .... a trailing arm leg would look fine on an EDF jet like Viper.