They always seem to go or not go for me, never ease out slowly..I’d crank up the elbow grease and make sure you have correct size punch.

Try some penetrating fluid overnight. Deep Creep, PB Blaster, or something similar.

take a pair of vice grips and grab the long side, squeezing the slot together and then try to rotate back and forth while pulling, I just did two this way

Buy some new roll pins use the right size roll pin tool to knock the old one out using a hammer . When removing the old pin sit the flipper shaft between 2 bricks.Use abit of force and they should pop straight out.

Just went through this when rebuilding my flippers. I used a 5/32" punch, which was the perfect size, and I used a bench vise, with the jaws slightly opened, so the roll pin had the gap to clear. I rested the crank assembly on top of the open vise, and tapped the pin out just enough that I could wiggle the old plunger assembly out. It didn't take too much effort, but it took some fiddling because I didn't want to knock the pin all the way out since I was going to reuse it.

Yes I always prefer to use a bench vice for this task-a nice progressive non shock push in particular to get movement started using a small socket to take the protruding end. When re-assembling I also use a spacer to prevent the pawl jaws from closing which prevents appropriate freedom of movement of the plunger/link.