Expand Appearance of Multiply

Hello,
I have a question about expanding appearance and multiply. I work in print-on-demand, and one of the limitations is that we can not use multiply on artwork. In order to achieve a similar appearance, when I receive these kinds of files, I flatten transparency, and that will sear in the way the multiply effect is interacting with the other elements of the same art file. (in the example below there are no interacting elements) However, if it is intended to interact with the background, I have to fiddle with the cmyk values (adding k) and opacity level until it is as close as possible. It is time-consuming.
Someone suggested we use 'expand appearnce' instead, and I tried it once and it worked! It did all the legwork for me; it spit out a different cmyk value and opacity level that mimics the effect of multiply, so I don't have to calculate it manually. However, I can't get it to work again. Illustrator thinks it is already its simplest form of appearance and will not expand it further. I've tried adding another effect and expanding but it will only expand the effect and keep the multiply.
Maybe she and I were both tripping when we thought it worked once? Does anyone know how to expand the appearance of multiply? Here's a picture of the 3 methods I'm speaking to: on the left is multiply, the center is flattened transparency, and the right is achieving a similar effect of multiply with opacity & color build.

I can send you examples of an original, unexpanded and an expanded, and also one that I dialed in by hand. How do I send it over?
We can't use any overprint fill attributes, because this is for print-on-demand, and aside from the possible complications with the InDesign Processor, things can disappear on darker backgrounds, and we have no control over what the customer does. They could put it on a black background and then wonder where it went!
Flatten transparency is great for when the elements are only meant to interact with each other within one file, but what is hard is when it's supposed to interact with other elements, such as a background or another asset. Since this is print-on-demand, we can't place it in the file and set it to multiply, it has to have it built in with opacity and a tweak of the cmyk values. Here's an example of one where flatten transparency works fine:

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