I checked each pivot stem, no barbs, smooth as could be.
I too, thought it might be something that happened from skating them as I don't recall seeing the nick/divot/whatever when I first got them; as big as it is, I would assume I would have caught it...but in my pic where I rotated the pivot cup section that was shredded, clearly the pivot cavity flaw was/is visible and I should have seen it...
So they're either present to start (which my second pair semi-confirm since I can see the flaw, albeit smaller) and / or they get bigger somehow after skating them...I mean, I saw mine after 20 min of skating...cup was already chewed and that was JUST boardslides to warm up. I don't think the metal there is soft to deform like that from skating....if so surely some pilots surely had this happen?