Hi, Joe. Thank you very much for the advice. I certainly will read those threads, and I very much appreciate the heads-up about avoiding water!
I hadn't thought of trying to straighten the pin, but it may well be the most sensible (and easiest) thing to do. I had also thought of applying heat (to the pin only) while protecting the machine and decals, hoping to expand and contract the pin enough to loosen the lock-up.
The thing that makes me curious is the number of machines appearing online with pins bent at apparently that exact angle and in the same direction. That's when I started wondering if the bent pin had been some after-market hack, used by machine owners (and possibly repair shops) to "improve" performance in some way. Another one for the "unsolved mysteries" file!