The ESC will work without but will reduce the life of it. The capacitor smooths out voltage spikes created in the ESC that will otherwise create heat. I reversed the polarity on an HW v2.1 luckily it was only a spark before I realised and stopped myself. After it I had no punch at all and thought I'd blown the ESC, turned out there is a fuse on the HW cap board that protects the caps, replaced the board and all good again
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