Controlled Dem is done by blowing out supporting columns and beams and floors, in a systemic pattern, not exploded all at once. Detonated from top to bottom at say a second apart intervals. Especially key is blowing out the vertical columns, so that everything is broken apart into small segments and because the very horizontal floors and horizontal beams are contingent on the vertical supports. If the vertical ones arent blown apart, the horizontal would start falling sideways out outways. Controlled demo is everything inside gutted away to allow the external to fall in and down (footprint).
If WTC top affected floors got weakened by 50% and thus horizontal floors started collapsing, again, thered be too much resistance below 70+ floors unaffected, the collapse down would eventually slow down and start sliding sideways and outways. Even more damning is that huge grid of vertical columns in the core, they would still be standing 50+ floors whilst everything else above (concrete etc) fell away to the sides and down. That grid would in fact prevent a pancake collapse from continuing to happen, thered be half a building left largely intact.
Have you got calculations to support that , or is it your gut feel?
I've seen plenty of "controlled demolition" films where the collapse slows down or starts sliding sideways, but this is driven from the top down, so all the force is acting vertically downward.
Maybe you can stand with a fully grown man standing on your shoulders. If he drops from roof height onto your shoulders, you hit the deck. Your resistance is not prolonged, your legs just buckle.
The NIST investigation's conclusions do not support the "pancake theory" of collapse initiation, in which the collapse is begun by a progressive failure of the floor system. However, "pancaking" was accepted as the mode of collapse progression
How do you believe the collapse progression took place?