Idea related to the Mecha Pilot Jazz AU
For anyone not familiar, there's a transformers au made by @keferon where Jazz is a human piloting a mecha who meets cybertronians and gets mistaken for one. It's inspired lots of other writers and artists, and it's beautiful.
Jazz doesn't realize that the transformers aren't fellow pilots or that they think he is the mech, despite having been made aware that non-organic life exists.
Therefore, he talks about the human species as it is but does not specifically try to clear up the misunderstanding.
Over time, the transformers learn a lot of tidbits, such as
Humans do not have much space travel technology of their own
Humans are an organic species
Humans have a history of adopting and raising orphans of other species
Humans are capable of both compassion and viciousness and sometimes combine the two (see: domestication of dogs, hunting hounds)
Humans are fending off a Quintesson attack
Jazz believes himself to be human (despite obviously being a mechanical lifeform of some sort)
Jazz has a fondness and lack of bitterness toward his homeworld that seems a little out of place with what seems like the results of horrifying mistreatment (he looks like an empurata victim and has no pain receptors)
Jazz became incredibly protective over the transformers after learning that they felt pain when injured
The transformers reach the entirely understandable conclusion that Jazz is a mechanical lifeform who was adopted by humans after being kidnapped by quintessons and escaping through a space bridge that lead to Earth as a youngling.
What had previously resembled the outcome of the empurata procedure may have simply been the best efforts of a species in possession of low levels of technology with access to only whatever knowledge of mecha physiology they can figure out from their own observations trying to keep a beloved community member alive with only the resources at their disposal.
If Jazz hails from a species that needs to be transferred into new and larger frames as the spark matures rather than being able to grow or just starting out with a frame sufficient for a fully matured spark, it's entirely possible that the deficiencies arose because his caretakers were inventing entirely new (to them) branches of technology in order to meet his needs and had to prioritize the systems he couldn't live without.
Even if he didn't, the low-quality replacement parts lacking in pain sensors could have resulted from attempts at treatment for injuries sustained due living in a war zone without access to the level of medical knowledge and technology Cybertron took for granted.
Jazz's somewhat reckless approach to his own safety when there's someone else to protect also makes a lot more sense if he's used to being the biggest, strongest, and hardest to kill in a world under constant attack by a terrible foe.