I find myself a bit annoyed by the damage mechanic and would like to disable that.

I would suggest adding a setting to disable that mechanic

It is there - both at start and during game play. Only admin can change it.

If starting a new game - go into Mod Settings -> Map and uncheck "Explode BNO Assembling Machine at 20% power".
If in game you can toggle this on/off by hitting ESC->Settings->Mod Settings->Map and uncheck the same setting

Thank you for the response, I looked into "Startup" without checking the other mod settings tab, absolutely my fault for not checking throughly.

A common mistake, and not easy to find UI. Enjoy!