Indeed it is doable, and I do SMD work all the time both by hand and with my reflow oven. I have done some BGAs with some success ( and some spectacular failur

Indeed it is doable, and I do SMD work all the time both by hand and with my reflow oven. I have done some BGAs with some success ( and some spectacular failures ). The reason for the interest in through-hole building is for use in 'build-it-yourself' projects for other vintage enthusiasts who don't have SMD skills. I however should have been a bit more clear that I was referring not to an FPGA itself that is through-hole, but a PCB adapter to use a BGA FPGA in a through-hole application with high pin count. That distinction was not clear in my original comment.