In vQmod, the regex still needs to have its delimiters. You are also better off just using a generic search for the <h1>
since you are setting it to just the heading title.
<file name="admin/view/template/*/*.tpl">
<operation>
<search regex="true" position="replace"><![CDATA[~<h1>.*?</h1>~]]></search>
<add><![CDATA[<h1><?php echo $heading_title; ?></h1>]]></add>
</operation>
</file>