Indeed they are soft.
Seeing as how they're so soft my Master Mechanic of an Uncle simply placed a Phillips screwdriver onto the jet, pounded it into the head of the jet with a hammer, turned the screwdriver and out came the jet. The jet is still smashed onto the head of the screwdriver.
It took him all of barely 5 minutes to get that thing outta there from the time he walked through the door.
I have a half day of work tomorrow so I'll put everything back together with a new 55 pilot up from the previous 52.5, spacer mod, and see how the carb responds.
Thanks for the replies, fellas.