Look closely at a lightning cable. The edge is metal. When you plug in a lightning cable, you briefly short every single pin together. There's probably a greater risk of bending a pin inside the port than there is shorting pins out.
Yes, it’s a similar design to RJ45, where angled pins are lifted by the leading edge of the connector. Lightning doesn’t have the grooves to guide pins, but the tight tolerance and setback of pins means you really can’t land a pin on the wrong connector, let along short across them.
Probably a good precaution to take - but I've always recklessly used a paperclip. Been doing it since the first Lightning connector devices came out and have never had any negative effects from doing so. Seems pretty robust.
