Cool, yeah I wonder if the pitting is caused by the solenoid making the cam position get stuck in one extreme position. I have always had a little bit of surging in first gear when just giving it a little gas, like driving through a parking lot for example, but nothing like this. As soon as that CEL starts blinking I stop driving and restart it. Gonna pull the solenoids and see if cleaning helps before I disconnect the solenoids.
It sounds like yours is going into a default mode where it uses the butterfly instead of the eccentric cam. In that case it will idle at 700 instead of 600. But you really won't notice much difference in driveability.
I'll try to report back after I get those solenoids cleaned up.