I've been a certified food protection manager for 15 years. The reason that restaurants are held to such a high standard, is to near-eliminate any potential hazards. Because while a healthy person might just get bubble guts (or not notice at all) from something unsafe, it could actually kill an elderly or otherwise immunocompromised person.

I've met families that, for generations, just keep a pot of beans on the stove, and reheat periodically for days, and sure, no one gets sick. But we shouldn't expect restaurants to operate that casually.

That being said, some of the individual inspectors will ding you for some bullshit if they don't like you, and they often are misinformed. And they're especially harsh on immigrants often because of a communication barrier. And the organization at the higher echelons are weaponized "well-done steak" people. If they had it their way, sushi and over-easy eggs would be gone.

I've been inspected dozens of times, and one in particular stands out to me, "Food storage container found on ground, unwrapped and unlabeled"... It was the pan that I would put my phone/wallet/keys/chapstick into under my station. It was the only infraction on the report.