This video was posted on AAC a while ago (here). The chip decap is shown from 08:00.

 

It's good you got it going. I have found that it takes quite a lot of abuse to really destroy them. 12V on the 5V input will do the job!
I have always used clones from China so I have no yardstick to compare to but they have always worked very well for me. I bought some ATMEGA386 chips and 16 Mhz crystals from AliExpress so now I build them directly into my projects for very little cost. My programmer is a micro with a built on 10 pin connector. With the cable and a 10 pin to 6 pin adapter I can re-boot and program any configuration with minimal effort. I made a board to plug the chips into with a Zif quick release socket, a crystal, a LED and a 10 pin connector.

 

If the 328 is a "duff un" I have three decent chips programmed at work... I thought I'd do all four in one go..