That's not a meaningful penalty. If you and an inner sphere XL get into a fight, and you both lose a torso,he is dead and you are now running around still capable of influencing the battle.
Oh and did I mention that you had more firepower and armor then the spheroid so it would be a case of him overperforming to trade torsos in a fight.
Losing a torso needs to be a serious impediment, remember inner sphere pilots DIE when they lose a torso. So merely being put in a bad circumstance assuming you have been pushing your heat curve aggressively compares very favorably as still being 100% superior to running an Inner Sphere XL.
Edited by Gierling, 17 September 2014 - 09:45 AM.