Who's controlling who? When you look at this picture it seems on the surface that the top athlete is in control. After all, he has passed my guard and is in a side pin. But I am under both his arms. It will therefore be easy to move underneath his body weight and escape before the pin registers. This is an important point. What's more important – the position or the grip? In many cases the grip is extremely important, in some cases arguably more important than the position. The position is only as useful as the control it offers and if your grip is inadequate to exert control over an opponents movement it's not very useful at all. next time you're about to get pinned focus on getting your arms into a grip that negates the value of the pin and you'll see that the pin isn't nearly so fear inducing as it would otherwise be. In particular focus on getting both your arms under your opponents as under hooks and you'll discover that as long as your movement is not constrained (and it won't be if you have double under hooks under a side pin) then you're not really pinned at all. Remember that it's the pin and and a controlling grip TOGETHER that is a problem, not just the basic position by itself without a proper grip to solidify it.
