We also have a concept of how to inspect plumbing. I could put all rules on a checklist and teach you how to check the plumbing in your house. (I'd have to look the rules up, but conceptually I could).

Of course houses are all the same: a few toilets, sinks, tubs and showers. The differences are easy to handle in the rules. You could imagine something different: instead of water we have a special hand cleaner in this sink. My checklists cover the potable water system and the non-potable water drain system, this special cleaning fluid isn't covered and your cannot inspect it. We have a simple exception for those cases: a professional engineer can legally stamp it saying "I have thought of everything, this will work if installed according to these specs." Then the checklist is make sure that everything is up to those specs.

I honestly do not know how to create a checklist for source code. Sure I can create some starts, but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underhanded_C_Contest needs to be considered: can someone pass your checklist and still win?