I am not sure I understood everyone here on this thread, so I will apologize in advance. No offense is intended to anyone.
If you have to change your pins after 1 or 2 seasons, then I think your pins are WAY too soft. I don't think there is any way a properly hardened pin should have any problems no matter what monkey puts on the rim. The aluminum rim is simply too soft. Frankly, I have NEVER seen a drive pin wear out. (I have seen several broken ones, but that was from crashes).
We used to torque our drive pins (3/8" thread--original size) to 35 foot/pounds. You can (and should) tighten 1/2" threads significantly higher. Now that we mill our drive pins directly into the hub, we don't worry about Locktite or torquing them any more
As for the pins, I would recommend a material that can safely be hardened to Rockwell C 40-45. That means 4140 chromoly or something like that THAT HAS BEEN PROPERLY HEAT TREATED! I hate machining 4140 and the like so the last batch of pins I made, I carved out of 17-4 stainless. Nice and bullet proof.
As for what Trigo is doing right now...can't say. I don't know. I do know I would clean the surfaces really well and use red Locktite, however. I would ask them what they are making them from. It would be interesting to find out. I am not sure what you all mean by "splitting." Though I must say, it doesn't sound good.
David