The only reason to bolt one down if it’s free is to keep the pads from sliding. The are supposed to have something against the feet to keep the whole crane from twisting. But it’s not to hold the crane down.
A tower crane with an empty hook is pretty back heavy. The crane is designed to always have the counterweights facing the wind, if the mast goes out of level at all the crane won’t weathervane properly.(Counterweight are always gonna be on the low side) So instead of the wind pushing the mast the opposite direction of the Weights, the weights are pulling and the wind can be pushing in the same direction. At the point your ground-bearing pressure is way more then it was ever meant to be. So even if the pad was sufficient it’s now overloaded.
Just to clarify counterweights go on the counterJib up top. The weights on the bottom are ballast. Most cranes don’t require the ballast be fixed to the base. A lot of them are just free standing. The ballast is meant to hold the base down instead of the traditional method Of anchoring the base in 8ft of cement. It’s a cheaper method. Now instead of pouring all the ballast into the ground and anchoring The mast, we can pour a pad to support the weight of the crane and use the same ballast multiple times.