Sometimes the best way to fix a piece of gear is with pliers.
That's a good point. Now that I think about it, when I was looking at my tool selection for backpacking and decided to leave the Leatherman at home this was my only real concern.
Ultimately I decided to put a tiny plier-based multi-tool in my small repair kit. It's not much but hopefully it would help in that area.
In a similar vein, since I don't carry a tool with scissors I make sure each of my FAKs have a small pair of scissors in them.