I know that everybody is going to shout me down on this,
And with good reason. Your logic is deeply flawed and your understanding of the problem exhibits major gaps in knowledge.
but I think the need for anti-static mats is highly overrated. I have worked in electronics for well over 50 years
It's eminently possible to be doing something wrong for 50 years.
and have never had a single part become damaged from static.
No, you don't
know that. All that you know is that you never experienced a human-detectible ESD event that you could correlate directly to a failure.
You have no clue about how much damage you have caused that
didn't lead to immediate failure. A lot of ESD damage is partial, in that the part still works, but is compromised, either in its performance or its lifespan. So if a part failed a year later, you won't necessarily realize that it was an undetected ESD event that caused its premature failure, so you won't attribute the failure to your lack of ESD safety.
The fact that most ESD events are undetectable is why we have to prevent them even in the absence of obvious "evidence". By the time ESD is diagnosed as the root cause (which itself is very difficult to do, since it requires things like SEMs), it's far too late. Preventing ESD damage is easy, so I think it's foolish not to take at least basic steps.
Anecdotally, you hear stories of companies whose product failure rates plummet once they enact proper ESD countermeasures.
Anti-static measure #1 is to not work in a room with a carpet.
Anti-static measure #2 is that anti-static measure #1 is enough.
If you are really worried, then have a grounded plate on the workbench and touch it before working. Once an hour or once each time you sit down is more than enough.
And consider, electricity flows from - to +. And a grounded electrostatic mat is ONE END of that circuit. If you have a static charge and start to pick up a part on that grounded mat, then the charge will leap from you, to the part, and into the mat. WHY provide that path by installing the mat?
That's one reason* ESD stuff is deliberately only weakly conductive: you want a slow discharge that limits the current. That's why you use an ESD mat and not a metal surface.
And of course that's also the reason why you're supposed to use an antistatic wrist band or equivalent (like ESD footwear and a conductive floor or floor mat): so that YOU aren't charged up to begin with. Having the operator at ground potential (0V) is probably the most important thing. A mat also helps in this regard, insofar as you're in contact with it every time you touch your bench. So every time you touch it, you equalize the potential.
A note about ESD footwear: I highly recommend this even if you don't have a conductive floor, simply because ESD footwear makes it much, much harder to create a static charge to begin with. (And it needn't be frumpy ESD-safe clogs; most safety footwear is also made to be ESD-safe. My safety shoes at work are from Puma and look almost identical to my regular Puma sneakers.)
*The other reason being safety.
And if you are going to insist on a static mat anyway, the very last place on earth where I would buy one is AliExpress. For Pete's sake, go to an established electronic supplier. You know, one who charges full price for something that actually works.
The only part of your reply I 100% agree with. (Unless you happen to work somewhere with an ESD tester, in which case you can actually verify whether an item is ESD-safe or not. I was kinda surprised that my cheap ESD brushes from AliExpress did, in fact, pass!)
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