Verbals and adjectives

I'm wondering about terminology.

While attempting to correct a paragraph, I was faced with describing the following choices to a member:

(a) they were crushed under the collapsed building while working vs. they were crushed under the collapsing building while working

My position is that the first should be corrected to the second because the context "while working" makes "were crushed" an action verb (passive) rather than a being verb plus an adjective, and a "collapsed" building would be incapable of performing the action. (That is, NOT "they were found crushed under the collapsed building.")

So I say it depends on whether you view "crushed" as an adjective or a verbal, thinking of the past participle as a verbal. But I suppose "crushed" could never truly be called an adjective, unless it were listed in the dictionary as such. We'd say it's a verbal, acting as an adjective, right? But anyway, in this sentence it would be a "verb," not a "verbal," right?

(b) this act made everything desolated vs. this act made everything desolate

Again, I recommended correcting the first version to the second one, but made it optional. I guess "made" is one of those "_____" verbs (CJ knows what goes in the blank) like "smell," which takes an adjective complement. So may I say it depends on whether you want the adjective or the verbal?

I know we can say "This act desolated everything, because "desolate" is a verb as well as an adjective. But does the existence of the adjective in any way prohibit us from using the participle as an adjective? I know that when I say, "This place seems desolated," I mean to imply that it's been acted upon. Not so of "desolate," IMO.

I'm starting to accept that I can't call a verbal a verbal when it acts as a noun, but may I call it an adjective and a verbal at the same time (if it doesn't have a separate dictionary listing)?

Thanks for any comments.