That's funny that they were saying it can somehow damage the car - think of how much damage we must have been doing to all of those cars we owned before the advent of TC, ESC, and PTM! I suspect they are telling students that for liability purposes - they want people to have at least some level of safety net. As proof that it's a liability thing, when I mentioned at Spring Mountain that I had discovered with my personal 5BW that I could feel Race 2 intervening sometimes, the instructors semi-jokingly asked me not to discuss that I had learned how to really turn everything all the way off in front of the class.
I do feel like my 4BW is still intervening even though I have seemingly turned everything off. If someone has the real way to make sure the nannies are off, I would appreciate hearing it.