We must be on guard against people attempting to use us as a no-cost alternative to hiring an engineer, and the nature of your question made it appear as such. Please do not misjudge the actions of people who's primary concern is the safety of others. Your more detailed explanation was helpful to understand the nature of your query. Perhapse had you provided that at the outset we could have avoided the unpleasantries.
That said, the comment that the breaker is there to protect the wires is the slightly more correct of the two, but it just is not that simple. Typically, a machine or device will have been designed with a specific type of circuit protection requirement, and to attempt to interpret someone else's engineering decisions is a minefield of potential dangers. We cannot know, nor can you, nor can anyone else who thinks they know just from a brief description. Only the engineer who said "use a 10A circuit breaker" can be expected to know if another value is possible. To guess is to risk fire and harm. So bottom line, the only safe response is, do not interpret of change what was said unless you are willing to accept PERSONAL responsibility for all possible outcomes.
"Dear future generations: Please accept our apologies. We were rolling drunk on petroleum."
— Kilgore Trout (via Kurt Vonnegut)
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