Help with Valvesprings and valve float. Noob

Maybe the OP is referring to something else? If 'gouges' means the troughs that PRH is showing, those are not caused by shims. My PRW PQ rocker needles damaged the shafts in exactly the same way that you shims. The rockers and shims can't move that far back and forth to make that wide trough. And, yes, not all the needles did that kind of damage at every location in our case, so I can see where one side could be OK and not the other.

BTW, if you wanted to try those rockers as they are on some different shafts, you might have better results. Maybe there is a source of hardened shafts better than the one that came with these rockers.