As above. I have a VSD, full shields, about to do a Jerry turn. I observe that my maneuver will end with me on the station, so...why take the damage to the shields (which won't get repaired), if I can take it straight to hull (which will)?

Rules that would seem to apply, as I can see it:

Pg4, 'damage', has:

Quote

When a ship suffers damage and a hull zone isn’t specified, the ship’s owner chooses which hull zone suffers all of that damage.

...which would seem to indicate no, in that you must take damage by identifying a hull zone - and so it would always hit shields before it could hit hull.

But it seems a useful enough distinction it is worth asking, to make sure I'm not missing anything...

You are correct. You are choosing a hull zone to suffer that 1 damage.

That Damage will be on shields, if shields exist. Or on Hull, if there are no shields.