Ty Ford wrote:

The ribbon issue has more to do with connecting the ribbon mic to the preamp
while the phantom power is ON. IF, while plugging the mic in, the pins touch
in an unfriendly manner, you can zap the ribbon.

There's your hypothetical, but I've never actually seen it happen.
Have you? I've plugged ribbon mikes into phantom powered preamps many
times, and I know a great many other people have too, in studios where
the phantom is on 24/7 and they never give it a passing thought. Do
those people find themselves reribboning their mikes on a weekly basis?
Or yearly even? There are much easier ways to blow a ribbon, and I
would bet that most of the time the user doesn't necessarily know
exactly what the cause was. I've heard some tall tales about airflow
from drums, amps, the lid to the microphone's carrying case, etc.
Obviously ribbons do get wrecked occasionally, so at least one of these
is a reasonably common occurrence. But the way you hear people warn
each other on these forums about the fragility of ribbons, you'd think
they're made out of cobwebs and butterflies. They're not. All of my
ribbon mikes have been very robust and reliable. The risk of blowing a
ribbon is hugely overstated. I'm not saying it never happens.

ulysses