My take on all these 'protective protocols' is that it is not intended to protect from deliberate stupidity, but to minimise the risk of accidental contact.
For example, I have never in my life ever known of an instance where something conductive has slipped between a mains plug and a wall socket shorting out the active and neutral - but obviously there have been. So we now have insulated active and neutral pins. I don't really mind this because it makes sense AND that it doesn't affect usage (unlike the earlier 'shroud' on line sockets, which caused me problems with a couple of things.)
My only gripe about recessed sockets is that you don't get the terminal post option, useful for securing bare wire connections. If they are trying to say we should only use 'properly terminated' cables, then I would be miffed. Trading off significant functionality for an incremental improvement in safety really rubs me up the wrong way.