= Solution
A <pion> mass gives a <Yukawa potential> range of order a femtometre, so meson exchange can describe the short range of the residual <nuclear force>. The nuclear suppression relative to a massless potential of the same coupling is only about a factor of two at one femtometre. A Higgs-mass mediator instead has a range around $10^{-18}\,\mathrm m$ and a further factor $e^{-633}$ by nuclear separations; direct Higgs exchange cannot supply an appreciable long-range nuclear binding interaction at those separations. The range comparison does not replace the spin, coupling and many-body physics of actual nuclear forces.
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