Many years back, as the 787 was being introduced into service, I attended a seminar at BALPA HQ, Heathrow, regarding the increasing use of composites on aircraft. The eye-opener for me was what happens when carbon fibre is physically struck by something. It can leave very little evidence on the outside surface, but it can create a major mess on the inside surface.
We were shown test pieces of various composite materials ('coupons', they called them ...) that had been hit, under lab conditions, with different shaped small objects, at differing forces. Many of the coupons had barely any visible mark on the strike side, but the composite was often splayed out, and obviously weakened, on the reverse side. The problem was how to convince airfield vehicle drivers to report all collisions with aircraft, as they might consider no damage had been done, whereas their could easily be a dangerous mess on the back side of the composite skin. With metal aircraft skins, it is pretty obvious where a collision 'ding' has occurred, but not necessarily so with composites.
Admittedly, the lightning strike damage photo in one of the links earlier in this thread is utterly obvious, but I wonder what it looks like on the interior side of the aircraft skin? I suspect it is going to need a patch repair (in whatever form that takes on a composite aircraft ...) much bigger than the visible exterior hole.