It's quite easy to break this brown piece of laminate that holds potentiometer legs. So I would not recommend bending legs. Just use different type of the potentiometer (solder lugs, short straight legs) plus resistor cut off legs. If you do not want to buy any extra pots - just cut off the legs close to the laminate and use resistor cut off legs.
Won't the PCB be flopping around on the wires internally then? The tags from the pots normally hold the pcb in place right? Or do people just put in some foam or secure the PBC some other way?
I’m a cheap-ass and I will buy the cheapest pots for my builds, often solder-lug or short pcb pin, I just solder solid core wire to the pot and bend it to wherever it needs to go. Never let me down. Not as stable as the usual angled pcb pin pots but if your pcb has 3 or more pots it’s very stable.
For tagboard stuff I usually stick some double-sided foam tape I get from wilkos or B&M (in the U.K.) which comes in a roll, on to the back of the pots and push the solder side of the board on to that. It holds pretty good.
