What I did (your mileage may vary, objects in the mirror ..., of course I won't ... ) was take a sharp piece of steel, turkey lacing skewer in my case, but an awl might be better. and put it against the plastic batten pocket and angled towards the bolt rope. Then push it through the sail material and into the batten end and pry the piece of batten back. It will move about a 1/16" at first. Then again, then again. When it's not jammed in the protector anymore you can run your finger down the batten pocket and push that batten ahead of it.

I know you don't want to make a hole in your sail and I know the batten material is hard and the skewer slips a couple of times but hey ... life isn't perfect. The hole is close to the protector and ... protected. My sail is still OK and I think I had to pry out two.

Good luck. Try to curse under your breath.