Just came across this thread and had some similar concerns.. I'm hoping this gets some looks, since the topic title is a little different than the matter that's been discussed so far.
I'm very, very slowly creeping into the world of DIY. I recently got a couple of WYSE boards to practice on, and I desoldered the switches on one of them over the weekend using a Radioshack desoldering iron. I noticed a number of them had bent pins, which meant they weren't coming off after simply desoldering..
What's the best way to unbend them? I was using the Radioshack iron to try to manually bend them back straight, after the solder was already off. However this didn't always work even if I keep the iron on for a long time (which I imagine isn't a good thing), so I found myself trying to use screwdrivers or pliers - but then I scratched up the PCB like hell. Luckily it's just an old board.
And I guess I have a similar question to the OP's - is this very common among newer boards? I've got a Filco and a couple of QFRs that I'd want to work on sometime in the future, and was wondering if this is a common occurrence I'll have to look out for.