[HOMM5] help needed on getting custom HeroPreset files to be detected in Map Editor

[Palorius]

Preface: I have modded many games in my life (Baldur's gate 1&2, Planescape:Torment, Skyrim, EU4, even this one when it came out)

Felt like replaying HOMM5 recently and had the idea of locking up each hero somewhere on a custom map with one of each type free to hire. But the presets leave much to be desired as they are less than descriptive and there are many heroes to imprison. I created some in the editor but they disappeared as soon as I closed the editor. Therefore, I created some DuelPreset xdb files and left them in the same folder as the vanilla presets. That didn't work so I tried zipping them into the data.pak, which failed. So I created my own pak and they still are not showing up. It's been a minute and I have reviewed all the relevant tutorials. What am I missing?

Thanks in advance