I would like to know the "magic" involved which forces the screw
threads to go to the correct side of the plastic cable tie, i.e.,
the plain side.  Get that wrong and the result would be that the
plain side of the tie is against the wood and there's no grip at all.

When fixing something with many screws, one of which strips out when
tightening, rather than taking them all out again in order to get at
the offending hole (and risk damaging their threads further) I often
drop a short piece of matchstick down the hole _without_ glue.  This
causes the screw to grip as it needs to compress the new wood.  This
alone is enough for a temporary fix (until the piece needs to be
removed again).  One of the tricks is not to tighten the screw too
much.

A gasket will ensure an airtight seal, and if the part is constructional,
then there should be enough screws to hold the joint together without
over-tightening in the first place.

Regards,
John Page, UK