Spiral balance rods out of pivot shoes on all windows?

Hi, I finally found a site that may be able to help my window situation. I have vinyl tilt/double-hung windows with the spiral balance and pivot shoes. All of my windows have been broke for some time with the rods from the spiral balance tubes all being popped out of their pivot shoes. So here are some questions I hope you can help me with;

How or why did this happen to (6) sets of windows?

Can a window be opened up too far causing this scenario?

How do I know if all my spiral balances and pivot shoes are good and maybe the rods just popped out and just need tightened with the charger tool and popped back into place?

If I do need replacement pivot shoes, do I really have to either cut my vinyl tracks or purchase a swisco tool that spreads track enough to get the old shoes out and the new ones in? That sounds insane! There's no other way to remove and replace these shoes?

Why does there appear to be (3) slot positions on the pivot shoe where the rod could go? Is the center position of the pivot shoe the only position for the spiral balance rods?

Attaching a pic of one of my pivot shoes and one screw mounting the spiral balance in an difficult position to get back out.

Thanks Paul. I wasn't putting them back into the "middle slot" as I have no tool to re-tension/tighten them (which I'll purchase from your site - thank you). The only reason I say the middle position is because a couple of smaller windows I have that seem to work, have the rods connected to that middle position. I haven't done anything with the windows yet but maybe they were installed wrong by the original contractor? I will try tightening and reinserting the rods into one of those other slots. Thanks again