[pitzoid]

"If the field control system ends up not delivering the promised behavior and fails to pass the state of the operator console controls to the robot at some point before the match begins, I would consider it the equivalent of a breach of contract."

Actually, FRC FMS team control never communicates with or restricts the comms with the robots, its strictly a DS communication link. The DS connects with the cRio through a team dedicated VLAN and reports back to FMS that the team is ready to go. Then a match can start by FMS enabling the DS. Any sort of action like you're referring is in DS firmware.

Also the time delay between autonomous and teleop this year is 1 second.