It’s been over a year since my installation, so I wanted to chime in with my own experience, because I consulted this thread while planning my project.
To provide direct input to your question, @russ.sixsigma, I was using the Wyze Light Strip (not Pro) and settled on a kit with 4-pin connectors and wire that met my needs almost perfectly, and I followed the advice I read in several reviews that suggested poking the “teeth” (as you wrote) from the side with the LEDs (the top), though @PBRme’s advice might make more sense, depending on your hardware and application. (I say “almost perfectly” because I used every bit of the wire and had four connectors left over when I was finished.)
I think @PBRme’s advice about having the snap-down cover available makes sense, but that’s not what I did. Since I was poking the connector contacts through from the top of the strip (based on Amazon reviewers’ advice) and planned to hot glue the connectors to the underside of the kitchen cabinets, I anticipated having those snap-down covers glued to a flat surface, and that’s worked out exactly as expected. I also used hot glue to sort of “spot-weld” the strips to the cabinets at certain points, not really concerned about what it would look like when viewed directly. (You have to get below the cabinets to see the actual strips, anyway.)
In my project, I was using a 10 m Light Strip (i.e., the 32.8’ strip with the controller in the middle). One half of the strip needed a cut with connectors and wire to span the kitchen sink area; the other half had two cuts with wire and connectors to fill out the “L” where the cabinets met in a corner and to span the oven and microwave area. I really wanted to use Wyze Light Strips because I was doing this project in my parents’ kitchen and they already used Wyze and Google Home devices, and I wanted to make this an easy-to-use integration for them. They were pleased with the final result, so I consider it a success.
Like I said, I consulted this thread (and others) while planning my installation. While I genuinely appreciate the experience and input provided by @K6CCC and others who suggest soldering the connections instead of using solderless connectors, that’s not something I wanted to attempt for cabinets that were already in place.
That makes sense to me, as well, and it makes me wonder if @K6CCC’s experience with synchronized Christmas light shows involves moving his installations around (as I write that, I do realize that a strip or set of strips may be static to a given production piece, but I also imagine that those pieces are moved into and out of storage seasonally, so an installation as a whole wouldn’t necessarily be considered static). In that kind of setting, I agree that you’d absolutely want a more durable connection. In my case, though, I don’t expect these cabinets to move, so I wanted to share my positive experience with connectors that have been in place and working for a year. Hopefully someone else’ll find this helpful!