Maybe I'm not reading that right or didn't catch it, but it doesn't sound like all cars' planks were checked during scrutineering. From the same document:
A physical floor and a plank wear inspection was carried out on car numbers 01, 16, 44 and 04.
So all the cars were subject to various inspections, but not all had the same things inspected. In particular, only cars 01 (VER), 16 (LEC), 44 (HAM), and 04 (NOR) were selected for plank wear inspections. And as such, only cars 16 and 44 were found to be out of compliance.
Am I understanding that correctly?
I like Bottas plenty. But if he got the boot for a new driver, I wouldn't be mad. He's "made it" in F1. At this point, he's just cruising. And that's great, and understand why he's doing it.
But, again, if it means new faces, I pick new faces.