Yeah I've seen some of the rigor involved in DIY electrical work lol Funny enough, this was one area where I actually saw in real time where the major codes came from. None of them were particularly unfair or burdensome to anyone who doesn't want to die or burn their structure down. You wouldn't believe some of the dumb shit we fixed. The bigger issue in my experience was the quality of inspectors. That's where the scam was in some jurisdictions, usually in Nowhereville. The codes themselves were pretty fair there are avenues for proper DIY work in my state at least. As for licensing, those rules pertain to people who do that work for money, not people who do work for themselves.