Hey, Russians, can you attack us with a rocket or two?
We did, by accident - it would seem. Everybody made such an effort to pretend it didn't happen, that it left Zelensky looking absurd with his claims that Ukraine possessed intelligence proving it was a deliberate Russian attack.
It was one of the rare occasions in the past year, where Russian and American politicians were on the same page.
Article 5 is Article 5. It has been triggered once and is binding.
Yes, it was triggered and only once. What happened? Non-state actors (emphasis on "non-state") attacked several American buildings with the use of civilian airliners. America declared war on one of the poorest countries in the world, for sheltering the organization behind the attacks. Its vassals loyally followed. There they killed hundreds of thousands of locals in response for the killing of less than 3,000 Americans (by Saudis).
Now what's happened every other time somebody attempted to invoke it? America talked them out of doing it. Most of those attempts originated from Turkey, either over things happening in Syria, or inside the country. But there are other incidents, excluding intra-NATO conflicts (Greece-Turkey), where the US talked people out of stirring up a mess, like the recent incident in Poland and others in places like Albania.
Article V itself does not mandate a military response from alliance members. It only says they have to do what they think is appropriate.