For the PSIO switchboard, there are alternatives out there. Voultar uploaded this one to OSH Park...
https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/Zi53kA47If I'm understanding this correctly, this version of the switchboard solders onto the parallel and then requires only 4 wires to be soldered. There might be other alternative switchboards available, this is just the one that I happen to come across randomly.
I never looked over the installation for the PSIO. So you have to soldering to traces? Can you not follow that trace back to something easier to solder to? Like a via, or side of a resistor or cap, or something like that.
And as for the XStation install regarding lifting surface mounted IC pins, yeah, that's totally the reason I haven't gotten around to installing mine yet. I know we've talked about this once before in this thread. Lifting pins makes me so nervous, because I once broke a pin off from lifting it (very easy to do after a wire is soldered to the floating pin). I've talked about alternatives, but I can only think of two and they both also have downsides. One is remove the entire chip, then you can easily and neatly bend the pins up, then solder the chip back down. Not so hard if you have a hot air station or Chip Quik (I have both) but also not a totally desirable thing to do. Or, leave the pins soldered down and cut the traces going to them, then solder directly to the pins. This is good because the pins wont be fragile and at risk of breaking off, which is especially a concern after a wire is soldered onto them, but also not always easy or even possible. If the traces are crowded, cutting them will be hard or impossible without damaging surrounding traces. Or if the PCB is more than 2 layers (which it probably is) you might not have access to the trace you need to cut.
But yeah, I'll eventually get around to doing it. I'll probably just lift the pins, I'm just not looking forward to it. I've got other consoles I need to mod/fix first though.