I am finally back on the website, apologies for my absence for so long, but after a long year of research the following are my findings:
1. I was told if I put anything on my naked roof and drive (especially heavy items) I run the risk of my roof tearing or ripping off due to the weight/speed thing.
2. I was told that my roof does not have the support like the models with the rails, therefore I should not attempt to install a rack (mainly because of
#1 issue)
3. I have called dealerships, talked to Nissan Mechanics, and called Nissan as well, and all agree that to install the necessary parts to install a roof rack, you might as well trade in your SUV for the other model, the money that you lose on the trade will be equal or less than the money you spend to install a roof rack on S model.
Then, my curiosity got the best of me and I refused to believe
#1 ...so...I bought a 13.5ft/80lbs kayak with those foam block holder things, placed it in the middle of my SUV roof, placed heavy kayak on top of that, strapped it in and took it for a 45min ride to the lake (hitting top speed of 70mph) and guess what? I still don't have a convertible version of a Pathfinder. It works just fine. Think about it, if you secure it to the frame of the car, the roof is only handling the actual weight portion of the formula.
My recommendation is to try removing the rail covers, installing a rail, placing weight on top of it and taking it for a spin. I wouldn't be surprised if it works just fine. I also think its a little bit of a 'buy the more expensive option' scheme from Nissan, but that's just my opinion.
Looking many times at the Roof Panel Reinforcement, it seems to me that it mostly deals with placing weight directly on top of the roof, as I did with my kayak. It's not like the extra weight from the rails is going to bend your frame, if it does, you have a completely different issue on your hands.
I also agree with Mantis, I will never again skip out on features that I really want to save a few bucks BUT I am a 'DIY' kind of guy, and it's always cheaper to do it yourself than pay 3 times as much to have them do it for you. So I thought: "I'll install my fog lights, I'll install my roof rack, etc." The fog lights were cheap and easy to install, but when I found out that they left the customer no option to install a roof rack, I got pretty upset. I am still waiting on the person to try removing the rail covers, installing it anyways, and testing it. It's just not that important to me so I have not done so, but I wouldn't be surprised if they work just fine on the S model.
There...that's my long explanation/rant