Small pits on an otherwise smooth surface really don’t matter much. Back to the cause: Water is what caused the pits. The pits are where rust was. The rust occurred when it was stored, for however long it took to happen. That could be as little as a few days in my neck of the woods (salt water). That explains why I’ve seen so many of them. Anyhoo, what you then have is a motor with particles of rust between the crank and bearing. As soon as you start it up, that rust scrapes and scratches the bearing, which gets hot and starts to melt. It’s all down hill from there and very quickly. It gets hotter and hotter and melts more and more until it totally seizes and busts all to heck. BTW, those rods had silver plating. The silver was the "bearing". It didn’t take much to scratch the silver, and there ya go…
Back to the question, the pits are LOW spots, not sticking up to scratch the bearing. So not a big deal with a plain bearing. That is not true of a needle or roller bearing where the bearings roll over a rough surface like a iron train wheel rolling down a noisy rail.
BTW, I ate those things for breakfast back in "The Day". Motor tears up, owner brings it to me for repair, I fix it and owner pays the bill. Then I took the money to the store to buy Cheerios for my family. Worked for me.
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