bulgie 

I would say not brutal just expedient. The kind of cylindrical fitting I would braze on (like the one gugie showed) gives all the strength you need, so there'd be no advantage to trying to salvage anything from the existing ears. They'd just get in the way and/or make the sresulting shape uglier. The resulting repair would be way better than new. Of course it had better be, since "as new" was obviously not good enough.