Like I said earlier, it is possible Ridley Scott intended for the Praetomorph to be a sub-clade of the traditional xenomorph, David's specific "unique" weaponization of the xenomorph, or that just certain species of xenomorph have this ability while others do not. 1) The facehugger in Alien heals in seconds. 2) Ripley 8 exhibits rapid regeneration due to her hybridization 3) Survives being crushed to death under 15 tons of hot lead being dumped on it from a great height 4) In the novelization of Alien it regrows an arm. So regrowing limbs or body segments is not out-of-character for the xenomorph.
Also nobody said it could 'reconstitute itself from mush or paste', just that it can regrow limbs and body segments.
No: That's what Scott said in an interview. He explicitly said that pasted/mashed Praetomorph would regenerate and reconstitute itself when it hit the ground.
Despite, you know, being paste.
Yeah, there are reasons why no one takes his commentary and design ideas all that seriously any more. smh