>>5944639>>5944798and my point number three. also my last one.
3: the covenant are actually really bad at war. the designs on their ships haven't been tested on any foe equal to them in size or technology, so they usually never face any problems other than how much firepower they need to bring to a fight. none of the wars they've yet fought have had them need to get creative. the war between the San'Shyuum and Sangheli was won by the use of the forerunner dreadnaught. the Unggoy Rebellion was only planet side, and the grunts weren't able to fight any naval battles. the Kig-Yar when first fought was nothing but pirates and traders and easily choose to become part of the covenant. the Yanme'e as well joined only after quick skirmishes. and the Lekgolo are literally just worms. they did not have ships. the covenant has never really fought an asymmetric enemy. so their ships and naval personnel are also equipped as such.
because of that. their ship philosophy is made with their large scale in mind. i genuinely don't think they have normal EVA suits, because their ships aren't planned to fail enough to need them. their hulls are made of very strong layered composites which are complex enough that nearly no two samples are the same. made in one large go within the assembly forges. and their shielding is good enough that other than being attacked by another covenant ship, the only means of damaging them before the human war was through small battles between ministries. they've never had to manage by just repairing a vessel, and i don't think nanolaminate even can just be fixed just by cutting out the area the hole is and adding new monolaminate. since the ships hulls are supposed to be one large single crystalline metal structure. so their management solution is through cutting off the broken parts. as they employ Modular Dispersal Technology. aka small explosives in parts of the ship to separate pieces of it either to make it fall off of the ship, or separate into smaller ships. their entire ship philosophy is based off of the idea of taking destroyed or broken parts back home, and scrapping the entire ship so that it can be melted back into a new ship in a assembly forge. which i actually only learnt about because you questioned my logic. so thank you. but my point being that Sangheli armorers basically make their ships like apple makes phones. use them and throw them out when it breaks.
pic related. an assault carrier using MDT tech to seperate into two smaller vessels. likely in case one of the parts got damaged.
which is why, i dont think really the ships are made with contingencies and failsafes in mind. and their crews aren't ready for atmospheric changes. since their ships aren't built to need repairs when they do break. the personnel just move to areas of the ship that aren't broken until they get back to an assembly forge and go get another ship.
sorry for the overly long explanation. hope my reasoning is solid :D