...No 2 (cut little blocks of fine sandpaper and cyano-glue to both sides of each dean for grip!)
The best advice I can give you guys is: Learn how to solder Deans plugs.

Deans plugs are by design not difficult to pull apart, once mated. If it is, the problem came at the soldering stage. Too much heat will distort the plastic body and the pins will go out of alignment.
The correct way to solder cables onto Deans plugs is:
1. Mate a female and male plug. This will retain the alignment, even if they get very hot.
2. Solder the cables and allow the plugs to cool off.
3. Unmate the pluges and heat shrink the solder joints.
That's it. No more miss-aligned Deans plugsand they should come apart quite easily.

Cheers
Christo