Customise the Expression map for NotePerformer: is it possible?

There’s a special case for the ‘Bowed’ playing technique that causes it to fall back on ‘Natural’, which it does because that’s normally a helpful behaviour for e.g. string instruments. I suggest you create your own custom playback playing technique called e.g. “vibraphone bowed” or similar, and use that both for the playing technique appearance and the switch in the expression map, and then you should find everything starts to work.