I would rather see the pins showing. Looks more aesthetic, especially when they are blued.
There is a lot more work in making them "pin less". If the lock plates are only about .125 thick (1/8"), then the hole depth would have to be a little over .093 (3/32") and a bottoming tap used to get near the full depth of the thread, but then again the hole through locks have to have the threads to a certain depth also as to not let them go through the lock plate and yet still be tight.

David