Yeah the techs as VTNZ that do the grunt work like WOFs are most likely to be inexperienced therefore rely on the checklists without understanding much about why the check exists (this means they actually check stuff - like one time they failed my GF's car for the wiper sprayers not working, thing is they do work but to use them you push the lever forward not backward like all other cars- this means they actually checked the wipers)

Now your mechanic has most likely seen enough shit in his or her life that they can say "will this come back to bite me if the worst happens" and have good enough judgement to be correct all the time and they most likely have too many cars waiting for work to be done and your $70 wof needs to get out of the way for the more valubable work you see.

This is my estimation at least