That's what I guessed too, but it would be less risky using a harness and a crane to avoid the palm falling hardly onto something. Probably if that man crashes on the floor it's cheaper.
I would use a known source with a known signal, then a SPL meter at a measured distance. That should be harmless. Within a 3dB range your listening sessions should be perfectly equivalent.
Yup. My suspicion is that they assume breaking the "old" drivers to get them off the wooden cups.
A luthier explained to me the procedure they follow to unglue the guitar neck from the body. They drill very tiny holes and they inject water steam for some time which softens the adhesive and allows the separation of the parts. It's possible that a similar procedure might work better than the usual hot air one, which is perhaps more difficult to control to avoid driver damage.