One thing I learned from putting up Christmas arches in 2023 is that the lights don’t tolerate being on the ground very well. The bulbs are not waterproof and the grass stays wetter longer than the arches themselves. Half of my light strands blew out a segment or two and there were too many corroded fitting and bulbs to repair them. For Christmas 2024, I used cord connector covers (like these) and plain extension cords between the arches.
Using the cord connector covers, we made it through a full season with no additional light strings breaking. Seems like the extra parts and hassle is worth the trouble!
Also the PVC certainly embrittles from UV exposure. So far the main pieces needing replacing are the fittings. They were a bit hard for me to find, here are the names for the two adapters:
Gregory Kimball 