Yeah I should have taken a picture but I was so mad it didn’t occur to me. It looks like someone replaced the sway bar end links and had to cut them off and cut into the sway bar with a cutting wheel. The ball joints were original from 2013 but didn’t show any signs of failure when I worked on it or the state inspector looked at it. Car has like 140ish thousand on it I think now.
Makes sense now, Fresh steel would have me questioning things, It would flash rust pretty quick without driving through water.
I'd take my lumps on the ball joint, And push back on the sway bar as it wasn't you that cut it.
Back charging you another mechanics time is wrong, You should be allowed to correct the mistake!