I'm still not a fan of the mini league format they've got now, OK it means we now get far more battles per episode then we used to, but it means that most of said battles are either horribly one sided (as one machine is still mostly broken from the previous bout) or just 3 minutes of both robots limping around in a state of near-death. A straight knockout format means broken stuff goes out straight away.
It doesn't help that there's far more spinners than there ever used to be, and they're so much more powerful too. In the 'classic' series it was mainly flippers/lifters and axes. Genuinely destructive machines were pretty rare. As a result, far more battles went the distance or ended with someone in the pit, as the bots weren't capable of delivering the knockout blow, so most defeated bots could be repaired relatively easily most of the time and be ready to go again if needed. Hypnodisc's arrival resulted in everyone panicking and adding loads more armour, resulting in even more stalemates as only the most powerful weapons were capable of doing damage.