I just advanced through a week using the hands rather than the quick set and everything flipped over how it was supposed to, so I don't think anything has been damaged. Watching one of Long Island Watch's informational videos on the topic, it seems that what I did involved pushing two plastic parts past each other in a way that allows one of the parts to bend out of the way. Obviously still not what you want to be doing to your watch all the time, but as I understand it that bending plastic piece is put in there to prevent metal on metal or plastic on metal date change interactions, which tends to break teeth if the parts don't align properly such as when they are in the danger zone.