After 1 1/2 hours, I finally gave up trying to change my fuel filter.
Even knowing where to press the "magic button" didn't help. As hard as I pressed that thing, I still couldn't pull off the fuel lines. I used as much force as I felt was reasonable, short of breaking the clips. After all the work I've done on this car (timing belt, AC compressor, etc) it is depressing to be defeated by a simple fuel filter.