Hey Jesse, the exploding is needed for baking AO correctly (in either program) and doesn’t have anything to do with baking normals in this case. The movable pieces need to be separated so that otherwise occluded areas (like underneath a movable switch) won’t be turned black. It’s also needed to be able to paint on the movable parts that would otherwise be hidden beneath other parts of the mesh.
I prefer Blender for baking normals and AO since I find it more flexible, but if it works for you to use Substance then there’s no reason not to. Whichever suits your workflow best.
Hope that helps!
