Oh, almost forgot…regarding the “rigid enforcement of the clock”: I’ve seen a few instances where the clock ran out before a badly damaged bot that might have been dead could be counted out (and at least a couple where both were in that state). The only time I remember one of them winning, however was in the Icewave Bounty Hunters, Skorpios vs. P1. Skorpios was flipped on its top just before time expired. Maybe Skorpios could have righted, maybe it couldn’t have. We’ll never know.
As the overwhelming majority of the time the badly beaten machine ends up losing anyway, I simply don’t think this is enough of a problem to start messing with the clock. Just way too difficult to enforce consistently. The most I think the powers in charge would ever consider would be to allow a “technical knockout” if one machine was clearly completely toast, and even then only if they saw a need to take some heat off the judges.