Pins on CPU vs pins on motherboard

The main issue is that CPU's are very cheap to make, in most cases, the $50 chip and the $600 one will have the same chip, just binned for a lower speed, while this is common and make business sense, it also shows that the production cost of the chip is not very high, (in fact modern CPU's have gotten cheaper to make since the dies are smaller and they get a higher yield per platter.

When intel moved to having the pins on the motherboard instead of the CPU, the CPU prices did not go down, but motherboard prices went up (lower end intel boards are more expensive than lower end AMD boards)

While the pins are more protected on the motherboard, when you buy a CPU, if the packaging is abused enough to damage the pins, then the CPU is likely broken. Most cases of bent pins happen through user error when building the system.

you can also find a few cheaper motherboards with bent pins (I don't recommend it though, with modern intel chips the pins re so close together that no standard tool can be used to work on a single pin if it were to bend somewhere in the center of the socket).

if a pin gets bent on the CPU, it is easier to fix since it is easier to manipulate the object, but on the motherboard, if any are bent, then it is nearly impossible to fix with standard tools.

I like having the pins on the CPU instead, the pins are more likely to be damaged than the socket.

The only thing I can think of is that they would be protected by the socket. Sometimes processor pins get bent.

The only benefit I see is for the board manufacturer... if you bend a pin on the board you may have to replace the whole board vs. If you damage a pin on the chip you can easily straighten it...