nvm, fixed it myself.
found another help discussion about shape keys being incorrect for another user and used the flexfile stuff from his .qc file

https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/groups/BlenderSourceTools/discussions/1/2183537632739381380/?l=french&ctp=1

As far as I can tell blender isn't exporting or compiling the shape keys into flexes, I can't tell I think it's not compiling them but IDK.
The system console lists 0 flexes

blend file - https://pasteall.org/blend/7df8cac52d5a4df8a412971a8b72dde1
console compile output - https://pastebin.com/Wq921ukW