[Ryan O]

Ok, so aside from th debate about answering:

a) no, if it is unintentional and does not happen as normal operation of the robot, I don't think the rule implies you will still be penalized

b) useful info - i believe in one of the updates it says that any balls with two or more broken struts noticed by reset staff will be replaced (aka considered broken) - so that's not even total destruction, but a small piece of it, which would mean they will need a lot of them to replace them/repair them