I'm of the opinion that the guy should get help solving his stated problem, and not substituting another problem.
Someone from Appalachia wins the lottery. He looks at a map of Europe and writes a forum: I plan to go to Europe and I will rent a bicycle and go from Paris to Rome in a day.

You suggest we should list bicycle rentals in Paris???

The O/P gives no indication that he needs those pins, but he does say he wants to use that external UART/BRG. Why not help him solve THAT problem?
But he states that he is a novice and can you just imagine the "exotic solutions" that need be suggested if he, after using up the pins realize that he need them for other purposes.

IF, oh how wonderful that would be, the newbies would start replying to questions there might develop a culture of asking "have you thought through that you will be out of pins" rather than just pointing out the problems with a solution (not that that is necessarily bad), but there is in the newbie world a tendency to sit back and wait for the roasted pigeons to fly in through the window.

I hope that your point "if he wants to make crap, help him make crap" never even gain a foothold.

Erik