Toss the brass (recycle) or see if you can get a refund. My guess is someone loaded it, used a HARD crimp, fired it then trimmed all that mangled brass off only to realize it was too short.
It sucks but that brass is too short excepting maybe the longest of it. That, however is not the problem in question.
I know the manuals say to avoid excessive flare to prevent excess stretch etc. I think you're being overly cautious. I seem to remember crushing a few myself thinking I was flush when what I actually felt was the sides of the brass contacting the die. I had run the ram to the top and screwed the die down to a waiting case, felt resistance, locked the die, lowered the ram and added one turn on the die. Didn't flare anything, only shaved lead and crushed cases.
Set it up again and make sure the case is flared with a flat base bullet (some are chamfered like a BT) and see if you can insert the bullet by hand and keep it aligned. As long as the flare is less than 1/3 of your seating depth, you'll be fine.
One other thing, stop using lube. It's a must for rifle and steel dies but is a waste of time for pistol. You chance contaminating powder and primers with it and a squibb stuck in the barrel is no fun. I saw first hand the remains of a very expensive collector's revolver with 5 bullets neatly stacked in the barrel. The sixth shot (he used ammo that came with it as he only intended to fire it a few times due to it's age and value) blew the frame and cylinder apart beyond repair. He later had it sawn in half and donated it to my club for safety seminars.
No others I know (and there are a few...dozen) lube pistol brass.