I've been to Mike DeSantis many times and heard him discuss the dangers of hot waxing your skis, how it will break down your skis, etc.
I have tried the various "hand pressure" methods and never had acceptable results, especially with harder waxes. I hot wax my skis every two or three ski days.. Yes, hot waxing makes a mess, but a shop vac takes care of that problem. My skis get retired because the edge is gone rather than the base being "ruined". I'm not waxing for the world cup, so I probably take some waxing shortcuts that some would find "wrong", but they sure still slide easy when I'm done with them, so I assume I'm doing something right.
Has anyone managed to irreparably damage a pair of skis via hot waxing? I just set the iron to the temp listed on the Swix box, crayon some on, and make two or three passes. Cool, scrape, brush, done.