I heard a guy on a craft forum say the same thing, once you get the angle right it's faster than scissors anyway. Some folks hand cut cause they like a slightly rough edge for the handmade look, or they're only doing a few at a time. For 60 pins though, no shot I'd go back to scissors.

That "0.5mm off spec" thing is the same story everywhere, not just paper. A batch of tiles that's a hair too big, a batch of screws that's a hair too small, lumber that's marked 2x4 but isn't. The spec gets treated as a suggestion and you're the one who eats the cost when your equipment can't handle the slop. I've seen suppliers hide behind "within tolerance" on stuff like this because they know most people won't measure it and prove it.

My buddy did the same thing last year and had a very similar meltdown. He went from browns to silent blacks thinking his wife would finally stop giving him the side eye during late night gaming sessions. About two weeks in he starts complaining that he cant tell if he actually hit the key or just tapped the desk next to it. His fix was weird though, he put o rings on them and cranked up the actuation force which honestly sounds like a nightmare to type on. He still swears by them now but I caught him on his old board last week when he thought nobody was looking. Some people just need that clicky chaos to know their fingers are doing the right thing.