I know how lighting on props works, but thanks.
Those particular patch panels just don't light smoothly, I guess I'm not 100% sure the origin isn't buried in a brush but they have a bad habit of either being fully lit or fully dark. There's no real middle ground. Works fine in daylight maps because usually they'll either be in full shadow or full sunlight, but in a night map it sticks out like a sore thumb.
I messed around with it for hours trying all sorts of options and I eventually gave up and demanded Crash and Hey You stop putting the things into the map.