Well my pennies worth. Been doing PAT for over 20 years. In the early days it was a very very necessary annual event. My clients gave me quite a lot of rope and i helped clean up all the bad practices going on.
Specifically , employees bringing in stuff from home like portable heaters, radios, coffee machines, these were always brought in as they "worked" but sometimes were in a bit of a state.
I spent more time negotiating the release of said items so i could destroy them, often i would physically take them away with me to ensure they could not be used again. Head Office supported me fully and i never had an issue (except once) where my negotiations failed, the employee would not give up his broken heater. I ended up going to his boss and getting a promise it would be replaced by the company..... next years it was still there..... sigh.
Over time, with help from HSE and other HSE consultants the practice of bringing in stuff has largely stopped dead as it is in the company handbook of No Nos.
Nowadays PAT is boring, i may get one fail in 500. Most of the stuff is less than 2 years old as stuff is so cheap , when it fails it is binned , no question.
I tried to implement the risk based approach with no end date on the sticker but all my clients did not like it and i have continued to buy the labels which allow an end date and will still use them as it easier for the clients to manage and demonstrate equipment is still "OK"
I cannot test as fast as the pro's cos just getting down and under the desks and back out again takes longer than the testing bit i have a helper now who records and stickers above the desk while i am below the desk but TBH my days are numbered .....
I think the way forward is to assign the task now to an employee, along with fire alarm tests and emergency lighting for office type environments.