The anvil is not spaced out farther, it's shorter. I has to be because the cup is thicker. All primers have the same tolerance in height. CCI uses the same compound in the 450's as they do in the 41's. The firing pin will not penetrate any primer more than .025", no matter what the cup thickness, anvil height or spring pressure. In my studies of ignition, the penetration of firing pin dent averaged .021" over 18 different primers, using stock springs.
In an ideal situation where there is no headspace, setting the protrusion to .025" would be sufficient, however when you figure in some shoulder set back of .002", it might be wiser to increase the protrusion to a minimum of .030",which would give you more than enough reach for full detonation.This would be for precision handloaders who have control of what they load for their gun. For the average varmint hunter, .035" will cover the gammet. If it won't fire at that length, you don't have enough spring, or enough travel, or you have enough headspace it won't reach. For that matter, be glad it didn't go off. As far as the headspace being long from the factory...not bloody likely. They are checked several times by several different workers. It is far more likely that the shoulder of the case was set back too far.
In this case of the Axis, the firing pin is one piece and cannot be adjusted like the standard 110 pin. The standard FP protrusion is .055", and the only way to "adjust" it is to shorten the tip. At .055" protrusion, the travel to the primer is reduced by the amount of difference it takes to get a .025" penetration. In other words, you are losing about .030" in travel, which translates into lost momentum. That short amount doesn't sound like much, but it is equivalent to 7 in/oz in impact energy.
Springs do NOT lose compression over time, they lose compression over cycles. High volume production compression springs as used for firing pins are made from "Rocket wire", not the common garden variety music wire used in common hardware applications. These types of springs are not suitable for repeated rapid cycles, and will take a set and continue to lose compression.

Because firing pin springs are made in high volume, they are not "conditioned". To properly condition a compression spring, it is first stretched 1% per coil over it's free length, them compressed to solid height. The result makes it slightly shorter, relieves some stress and puts it into it's compression range....kinda like stretching a ballon before you blow it up.

That last line....I have no knowledge of, nor do I know who I'm dealing with.