[Mark McLeod]

To have the force of a rule there must be a clear interpretation from the GDC and uniform "enforcement" across all events. That's the rule "rule."

I don't mean "enforcement" in the sense that an authority such as the Lead Inspector must stand over us. It's on the honor system. We all want to do the right thing.
I just mean that the event authority (and in this case it would be the Lead Robot Inspector's responsibility) makes it clear that's how the rule will be read.

Since, teams have done this for year's under essentially the same rule set, I think it's a stretch to say this is a rule, much less a uniform interpretation.
From their Q&A response and actions, or lack thereof, I don't believe that the GDC agrees with this particular interpretation.
The Q&A response seemed to be that there was obviously no such rule limiting when the battery can be changed.

I think we are all leaving with the same interpretation that we came in with...
There is no way to prove an anti-rule.