Well I had mine bent too. I had a Faxon pistol length barrel. Superlative Arms had me send my barrel in so they could turn me a couple of rods that were shorter for the barrel. According to them at the time, they told me it bent because not all pistol length are made the same. If you don't have a large enough gap between the op rod and the carrier, the likelihood of the op rod to bend is much higher with pistol length. There needs to be "some play" between the two. They turned me custom op rods and it fixed the issue. They told me the heat treat doesn't matter as much, as H19 tool steel will take the impact. I also believe the heat treat they use is not qpq, but it's a gas nitride.
I believe the owner is the one who fixed it for me. This issue stopped when I got my new rods.
Remember that there is a reason why there needs to be a slight gap between the op rod and the carrier when installed at default position the more overgassed and the shorter the distance, the more necessary that gap is. Keep in mind, the length of the custom op rod was slightly smaller than the one on their website.