I did the same paperclip trick ... Worked fine until one day I hit the wrong pin and connected the power line to one of the chips ... Bang. Big deal because I grew up in rural Ireland and a new C64 or a repair meant a road trip and big expense.
Ouch, could have as easily happened for me as well. As time passed I became more careless on hitting the proper holes, and I must've ended up trying quite a lot of different combinations. I'm very happy your experience didn't happen to me, I'd have been heartbroken.