at the end of the day no previous soldering expeirence is going to leave you with a dead ps2 or very little soldering expeirence
if you use the vias or the legs a newbie should not attempt either
and i would take either of them with out a problem but for a newb it is far more important to solder the vias which is easy to recover from rather than damageing the legs or snapping them.
EnTiTy