Ok disregard the previous post, I found a reliable repro for this problem. Here's a link to my test savefile :
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WBq55iDAEEivJqqcc_qWKDuijM8XaYTG/view?usp=sharingSo what I do is I use this ship (named Griffin):
Then I go run simulation with it and add this ship (named Leviathan):
Then I use cryoblasters on Griffin and quantum disruptor to very quickly destroy the Leviathan. And despite the fact that its officer Hathor Phobos has Reliability Engineering, good 50% of the time the Leviathan gets destroyed instead of getting disabled. When this happens during a mission, the ship needs an SP to recover.
I tried it with various officers and various ships and looks like both reliability engineering and damage control do literally nothing in terms of ships getting destroyed. However, reinforced bulkheads does seem to work: I could not destroy a ship that has reinforced bulkheads this way.
PS: I assume that when a ship gets destroyed this usually means that I may be not able to recover it without using SP. If this assumption is wrong and damage control is supposed to just make ships always recoverable (although still destructable) then this simulation test is invalid and I'll have to come up with another one that actually involves combat. However, if damaged control is supposed to prevent ships from getting destroyed, then this is very easy to repro.