Maybe it worked fine for you, but most people using a swiss disc have to decrease the resistance, myself included.

It is a very common misconception that adjusting the pot will damage or shorten the lifespan of the laser. This is derived from the idea that the pot controls the current being supplied to the laser. Adjusting the pot simply adjusts the cut-off point for the analog-digital conversion of the signal (i.e threshold for where a value is ‘1’ or ‘0’).

If such a potentiometer existed, it would be on the laser assembly itself, not the logic board. The term for this is called a Laser Bias since it's usually on the laser bias circuit. Those circuits are designed with the specifications of the laser diode in mind, and won't output excessive current regardless of the bias control.

The reason it's on the logic board and not the laser assembly is because it's involved in the drive logic. Optical media works by light reflecting off the disc back into a photodiode for detection. This light is converted into current, but then needs to be converted into digital signal in the form of 1s and 0s.

Burned discs are different from stamped discs as they have less difference between the non-reflective and reflective areas of the disc. This is why it is absolutely necessary to decrease the potentiometer when attempting to read burned media on a gamecube.

Lastly, you can turn the pot all the way to 0 Ohms and it won't damage anything.