Creative Speculation

in other words it shouldn't have collapsed at all.

pancaking floor by definition would create a decrease in acceleration (and corresponding increase in time) - a jolt or interruption - every time the pile driver hit another floor on its way down. but that is clearly not the case with the wtc buildings. in fact the buildings are actually accelerating, the same type of smooth acceleration you expect from an object in freefall with nothing below it to break its fall until it reaches the ground, with no jolts.

what happens when you hit a standard steel nail with a hammer? the fall of the hammer is interrupted and is actually stopped in its tracks when it strikes the nail. you then must lift the hammer up high above the nail and strike the nail once again, and again, and again until the nail is driven all the way into the wood. the hammer doesn't just keep falling as if the nail wasn't even there. the nail isn't just going to give way on the first strike, or even the second or third strike of the hammer.

in short the pancaking/pile driver theory is not possible under the known laws of motion and physics. its utterly absurd.