Regarding the laser welding - and just a personal opinion - RSC doesn’t do it, right? Ever wonder why, aside from motivation to sell more service midcases?
Thoughts on non-Rolex repair:
The weld material available for an indie‘s machine will not be composed in the same elemental proportions of the original 904L and may not polish out exactly to same luster. That is why Rolex chose it almost 30 years ago compared to the 300 series SS being used before that.
Only under 10x or greater magnification would an expert notice. This won’t matter since your son would be unlikely to sell it.
But it is detectable in a scan:
That 3mm weld dimension is a bigger example than you have but I think you get the point. By 2050 I’d expect a smartphone could yield such a scan using differential refraction (not available yet)
Other considerations - a laser weld can work well at the molecular level but the workmanship in finishing the repair matters most. After you turn it over to the weld expert, it might not come back with finishing that follows the chamfers perfectly. Thus you might trade the ding for a different (and more nagging) problem.
If you don’t weld, that ding can’t be polished without a visible difference in lug dimension compared to the undamaged lug.
So my advice is leave it for now - wait for better future options. If you are fortunate enough to never get another another significant gouge then technology may improve 5-10 years down the road and you can decide again.
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