I don't think I'd be tempted to go that route Phil. A 10mm piston rod with a perfectly centred pin of say 3mm diameter leaves little enough rod either side.
Maybe on an unstressed, round piston but these are neither.
I reckon pinning may cause failure sooner than leaving as is.
Did you see the pic of the rod that snapped earlier in the thread ?
As commented in one of the earlier posts, I reckon the issues will be more apparent with our power hungry friends from over the pond.
A 52 doing in excess of 24ft/lbs experiences rather more shock than one ticking over at 11.