More like your coworker is bullshit, or you are bullshit. No, Apple's "only 9 people" line doesn't mean only 9 people have ever seen a bend, but it does mean that only 9 people actually contacted Apple about having a bent phone. If your coworker really did bend his phone like that, his very first stop should have been the Apple Store, to get it replaced, and he would have been part of that "only 9 people" statistic.
So either you're making this up, or your coworker is.
Also, Consumer Reports tested the iPhone (and several other phones), and determined that it takes 70 pounds of force to bend an iPhone 6 (matching the force necessary to bend an HTC One), and 90 pounds of force to bend a 6+.
> the arch on your leg is going to easily create upwards of 50+ lbs of pressure at just the right place
Bullshit. If you're creating 50+ lbs of force on an item in your pocket by bending over, you'd be breaking stuff in your pocket all the time. 50 lbs of force is a not-insignificant amount of force. And of course it takes more than 50lbs to deform the phone anyway.