Generally, no. Accidental lens damage does not improve objective image quality. Scratches, cracks, fungus, smudges, and decentering typically scatter light or misalign the optics, which lowers sharpness, contrast, and overall consistency. The community examples point to this: damage may create effects some people like aesthetically—flare, unusual blur, or “character”—but that is not the same as improving measurable image quality.

A damaged lens can sometimes change rendering in a way that seems useful for a specific image, but it does so by introducing defects, not by making the lens optically better. For example, a tilted or decentered lens can place different parts of the frame in focus at different distances, yet this comes with reduced sharpness and incorrect alignment rather than a true improvement.

So the practical answer is: damage may alter look, and occasionally that look is artistically desirable, but it does not improve the lens in terms of standard image-quality metrics.