As far as 2/3 arcee dying, lets just puts things in TF world into perspective.
 
Purple & Pink got shot (bad) to the ground, Blue took cover, k
 
Survivals
 
Bumblebee survived with legs blown off
 
Frenzy survived with head cutoff (1st time)
 
Scorponok survived with tail severed
 
Starscream survived arm torn off (reinserted it himself on top of bldg)
 
Megatron survived half his face blown off and body wrecked
 
Deaths
 
Jazz torn in 2
 
Frenzy head split in 2
 
Pretender slammed into phone pole
 
Ravage spine torn off
 
Sideways cut in 2
 
Demolisher traffic wrecked, head shot
 
Bonecrusher head severed by Prime
 
"Brawl"devastator raped by autobot/military artillery (tf1)
 
Blackout (pt2?) head torn in 2 by Prime
 
Devastator raped by railgun
 
Prime, stabbed through spark
 
Fallen head torn off by prime (I rise, you fall)
 
etc.
 
 
 
and this is all to say these bots CAN take a beating, short of head or body being physically torn off (rampage v bumblebee)
 
and see as how 1 version survived to not bring them back would be a "barricade"
 
"barricade" code for mysteriously vanishing even though last seen alive, and lets not hope for another of those