2005 Sienna Power Door - Weakened Hinge???

I have a 2005 Sienna with 42k miles. It has the dual power sliding doors. The drivers side door seem to stick and will not close about 50% of the time when using the power close feature.

I took it to the dealer and they came back and said it has a "weakened ceneter Hinge". I purchased a Extended warranty thru Toyota at the time of purchase. They called the warranty company and were informed this was not covered and would be $700 to fix???!!

Anyone have a similar experience? i seached the forums and googled this and found 1000's of people with similar issues.

Is this a known issue with the door? if so , why is Toyota not standing behind thier product. Our car has been in no accidents and the drivers side door is opened only half as much as the passanger side door, will this defect appear on the passenger side as well?

do I need to go thru Toyota Corp to get this fixed?

thanks for any advice.
Jeff