WHY2025 badge batteries@kitten TL;DR: It doesn't increase the risks.
Long: 18650 cells are more or less a minus pole all around except for the little tap at the end. That's +. Puncturing the outer plastic does nothing to the stability of the cell itself. The plastic is just a protective heat shrink. I have replaced it on a lot of cells that had signs of wear (a friend uses those for her vape). Big holes however expose more of the negative pole shell and with that increases the risk of shorts.
WHY2025 badge batteries@kitten I didn't get the whole story around the badge but as the battery holder is exposed I would recommend getting some protected cells. They have a little PCB with protective circuit hidden under the heat shrink that shuts of in the case of over (dis-)charge or shorts. The little dent at the end in the pic looks like those might even be protected cells? Hard to tell. If they are they should be 2-3mm longer then the nominal 65mm.
WHY2025 badge batteries@dressed_in_rope from the specs I found online they are unprotected. I considered getting protected ones, but I didn't know if it could interfere with anything that might be in the board designed to operate with unprotected ones
WHY2025 badge batteries@kitten Does the badge include a spot welder function? That's about the only (very sketchy XD) thing I could imagine having a problem with that. Jokes aside: The only difference is minuscule higher standby drain (as the protective circuit burns a tiiiiiiiny bit of power) and a few Milliohms higher ESR. For the circuit it just looks like someone put a closed switch between the cell and the battery holder that only opens in an emergency.
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