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Been awhile since I’ve been into one (the post of mine you quoted is 10 years old), but I bet it’s just rust on the shaft. Clean the shaft really good and put it back together. I’d venture to guess that you would pull the winch off the mounts before you bent the shaft or drum.

I doubt the shaft or drum is bent. The winch has many more weak links that would fail before the shaft or drum did. With all that said, the military has been known to tear up a anvil with a rubber mallet so I guess it could happen. More than likely the shaft has rusted and it's just stuck...

I'm having that same issue with a winch I'm rebuilding. Trying to get to the bottom with what's going on (I've got it all back apart). Here's a link to the thread https://www.steelsoldiers.com/threads/winch-assembly-problem.51464/

I'd check the free spool brake before I tore it down. It sounds to me like the brake could be set up too tight. If thats the case it would hold tension on the clutch dogs all the time and make it very hard to shift. You should be able to rock the drum back and forth a pretty good bit by hand...