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Actually stainless is not brittle at all, it's exactly the opposite and tends to be "gummy". And yes, when "armstrong" gets a wrench in his hand it will stretch and gall. But that's because it's fairly soft, lacks sulphur and phosphorus and work hardens easily.
If I found myself in that position, I'd probably chuck the lock washer. When you torque a bolt, you stretch it, that's what keeps it tight. With a steel bolt, you might need the lockwasher because stretching the bolt may be too much torque for the application (aluminum antenna). With a stainless bolt, you can stretch it much easier and could most likely get away without a lockwasher altogether.
Personally, I'm not a big fan of split type lockwashers anyway.
I use a second nut commonly referred too as double nutting or jam nutting which requires much less torquing of the first nut without the use of a split locking washer.
