I don’t mean to defend what this body shop was doing, but I fail to see how this could be considered vandalism absent intentional damage being done.

This is a rather absolutist take for something so open to interpretation. There are also lots of crimes being committed constantly, but law should be used as a social framework first and system of punishment last. People in that framework are expected to be capable of more conplex thought than "You did bad, time 4 jail". There is nuance, and law should be there to facilitate restitution if necessary, but ideally there are other avenues for resolving dispute