Absolutely not possible. Those coils won't swell or explode. Let's look at the first photo again; anything that occurred internally with a degree of force required to bend the aluminum and break the screen in such a small concentrated area would have some telltale indication of what caused it.
The coil wouldn't (and couldn't) swell or explode, but even if it did, it would not be in the location where the damage is, and that particular coil would be easily seen where the damage is. To believe that the iPad had some internal catastrophic failure like what is shown, that coil or whatever caused the damage wouldn't explode, create the damage, then suddenly return to normal form.
Actually, I don’t want to rain on your parade here, because you seem to get enjoyment from being the resident crank, but you’re wrong. And rude as hell. But that’s beside the point.
I’ve serviced many iPad Pros made between 2018 and 2020 that have this issue.
It’s a structural problem. The metal at that point is thinner and weaker than the rest. This was somewhat corrected with iPads after those years, but it is a notorious problem with those made before 2021.
I doubt it has bent on its own with no external factors, but to say it was deliberate is a bunch of rubbish. More than likely, it was sat on or held by a corner or something else that distributed weight unevenly and caused bowing at the weakest point.
My own 2019 iPad Pro had the same issue. The screen didn’t crack, but that ridge did form on its own after time. My M2 iPad Pro doesn’t have the issue and I don’t see it in my shop very often on the M processors iPads.
But it is absolutely a design flaw of those models of iPad. Apple do not honor it as a fault because it is cosmetic. But they are well aware of the issue because they reinforced that area in later models.
Did it happen on its own out of nowhere? Not likely. Did it happen seemingly out of nowhere, with the owner not knowing something they did applied weight unevenly and caused a structurally weak part to bow? Probably.
But don’t go around accusing people of intentionally damaging their product. You have no proof of that, and each of these photos looks consistent with 50+ iPad Pros I’ve seen with the same unintentional damage.
