I have Outemu switches, and I haven’t had problems bending pins back. And as someone who majored in metalsmithing in college, as long as it’s not obviously cracked or loose-feeling before you install, you shouldn’t have to worry about it breaking inside the keyboard.

Just try to keep the corrective adjustment to a minimum (i.e. don’t go back and forth), and you shouldn’t have to worry about work-hardening the pin to the point of breaking.

Use a set of flat-jawed pliers, if you have them, try not to crush the pin, and you should be fine. If you do decide to order a full set, iirc they often come with a few extra switches to cover any bad ones.

Just be careful not to bend them past the point where theyre vertical enough to go in the socket. Its not very difficult to get right buy you could definitively break one if you push it too far. Just use a soft touch and you should be fine.

I’ve done this before with hot swappable boards plenty of times, no problem. If the leg appears to actually be damaged, don’t use it, but if you can bend it back and if seems solid, send it!

In my experience you can bend them back just fine. Especially if it is not a sharp bent.

Don’t use previously-soldered switches in a hotswap, but otherwise it should be fine to unbend them. I use Outemu switches a lot and it just is what it is. They’re cheap, so the metal is thin and the packaging is minimal, but I really like some of them, like the dustproof green.

One thing to note is that hot-swaps were not really invented with an eye towards frequent switch changes, and can get pulled off the PCB with rough or constant changes, particularly when putting them in, or the internal contacts can get bent (lumps of old solder on switch legs are particularly bad for this). If it’s a pricy keyboard, I’d recommend installing switches with the PCB out of the board so you can support the socket from behind.