First to answer the question "has anybody else tried 20db in-line amplifiers to a VAST box with any success?" No.
Now to some more info that I hope will be more helpful.
Amps will typically only make the signal level stronger and can even make signal quality worse as they also amplify noise, including self-noise in the amp and can often cause signal overload, which generates more bit errors.
Signal quality is far more important than signal strength.
If your signal quality is low, you need to improve that, not the signal strength (unless that is very low as well.)
Signal quality will be greatly affected by LNB skew, so that's where I'd suggest you start looking... provided all connectors and cabling are in good condition, no moisture ingress, corrosion, etc.
VAST requires critical dish and (particularly) LNB alignment to obtain good signal quality.
If you need more signal... get a bigger dish, rather than an amp.
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