Back around 1989-90 I used to work during Christmas Break from grad school, for a dealer. He was a pretty large one and also did light gunsmithing. For more complex work he sent it out.
He kept a big supply of Mossberg 500 replacement safties as they nearly all seemed to break. It was very easy to lose the small ball bearing but otherwise an easy job.
I am sure they have corrected the problem in the last 25 years.
Otherwise they were good shotguns.
I think some models still come with plastic safeties. I didn’t hear about this problem 25 years ago. I heard about it 5 years ago. Anyway, the factory safeties are small. There are a few manufacturers (GGG, et al.) who make an oversize steel safety.