Shops that also run small time (usually BHPH) dealerships are the worst about it due to the obvious conflict of interests.

In my state the emissions and safety inspections are combined under the same license. As recently as the 2010s the 3rd party that the training was contracted out to would straight up tell you in the PowerPoint slides that the state's #1 priority is emissions and that the point of the safety inspection was to make holding the license lucrative to remove incentive to circumvent emissions inspection process (i.e. it's a make-work program).

That can be solved. In Germany the Organisation doing the test (TÜV, DEKRA, ...) is different from the one doing repairs.

But yeah, that needs proper regulation and oversight.

Yep - I have a mechanic I trust - he doesn't do inspections, asked him to check my tires before I brought it in to get inspected and he said they should pass - unless the place I bring it for the inspection, also sells tires.

Its mind boggling to me that the place the does the inspections, is also the same place that can sell you the repairs - repairs that you may or may not actually need.

In my state, shops have a strict 3 strikes policy for ANY inspection related infraction, including charging less than $12.50 (presumably to prevent shops from cutting corners to undercut the competition) and giving out stickers to failed vehicles. This can result in shops with two strikes being EXTREMELY conservative in their recommendations to not lose their license. I don't think that's a bad thing, because you have to be EXTREMELY sketchy to get those strikes in the first place. Many shops will give out stickers to people with mostly safe but maybe has a simple item kind of failing, but that likely depends on how "visible" the issue is because they have to sign their name on every single sticker.

It works really really well. I've been very buddy buddy with shops and they will still give me a thorough inspection. It's also a pretty basic inspection, meaning if you fail it you should probably not be on the road.