One of the constraints in the design of dry switchable adhesives is the compliance trade-off: compliant structures conform better to surfaces but are limited in strength due to high stored strain energy. In this work we study the effects of bending compliance on the shear adhesion pressures of hybrid electrostatic/gecko-like adhesives of various areas. We reaffirm that normal electrostatic preload increases contact area and show that it is more effective on compliant adhesives. We also show that the gain in contact area can compensate for low shear stiffness and adhesives with high bending compliance outperform stiffer adhesives on substrates with large scale roughness.