I read a thing from a knife maker once where he said handle shape matters more than blade steel for how a knife feels in daily use, and your story pretty much proves it. What got me was how he talked about the palm swell and the taper at the back, because a narrow handle forces your hand to work just to hold on. There's no spec that tells you your own hand size, so buying blind is a coin flip no matter what the listing says. Best trick I heard is to cut a handle shape out of a bar of soap or a block of foam and squeeze it, since it costs nothing and shows you where the pressure hits. After a blister like that I wouldn't order anything I can't send back, period.

How bad were the pins actually bent, like folded flat or just leaning? One guy posting a win doesn't prove much, since the folks who snap a pin and fry a $200 chip don't usually come back to post about it. It works until it doesn't, and then you're out a chip instead of a $5 needle.