Yeah, 2 of my 4 are fine... the 2 that went bad took years of hard abuse to get that way.

Here is a shot of a kick lever going bad (obviously not the same reel). This one can be seen from the side but sometimes you have to actually rotate the reel to look at the "face" of the kick plate. If it is worn, it can look like scratches, gouges, or can even have the whole corner missing, which is what is starting to happen in this pic.