the risk of killing electronics with static seems to be really, really low.
For high-volume electronics like consumer PC parts or things like microcontroller dev boards that are designed to be abused yes. Most of the issues I've seen are with :
Bottom of the barrel Chinese shit where they just take a reference design and populate it with the cheapest components they can find
Extremely expensive, niche, low volume components built by small companies.
nobody wants to be the guy that feels a zap and then finds that the $1000 card/chip doesn't work
It is kinda satisfying when you know you aren't going to lose your job over it. POP! "Well there goes $1000" into the trash it goes
For high-volume electronics like consumer PC parts or things like microcontroller dev boards that are designed to be abused yes. Most of the issues I've seen are with :
It is kinda satisfying when you know you aren't going to lose your job over it. POP! "Well there goes $1000" into the trash it goes