If I had a choice, I would rather get zapped by 120V AC than a spark plug wire from a car. Home electrical I have no qualms about replacing anything electrical in the house, though I would absolutely draw a line at modifying the electrical panel.
When I was young, I mean really young I stuck my finger in a nightlight socket at of curiosity of how it worked. I didn't really learn anything other than it was a weird feeling.
In my younger years I assisted in plumbing and heating, it was a pretty valuable experience as it ranged from low voltages to higher. eg gas thermostat vs electrical heat thermostat. (AC, Heater)
In some situations I will work on live wires, in others I'm extremely cautious. Usually getting a marette on the live, whether active or not is first priority, just so if someone that doesn't know better doesn't have an incident, until the new (whetever it is) is installed.
In more deadly situations its good to have two testers (usually use non contact detector) to verify the circuit is not live.
Short circuit situations can be quite hazardous, breakers can vary in ratings. One thing I've always avoided is a short, also never giving voltage a path.
The ac jolt doesn't bother me that much but I wouldn't really suggest anyone try it.
There are some situations where it could be dangerous.
Around 20 years ago someone brought in a shock pen (we had rather nefarious pen thiefs around) and thought, if just the wrong person experienced that and had a fit, they would probably have a supervisor breathing down their neck.
I hated that job. We learned all this safety about, lockout, tagout, forklifts, had an operators license. However, once I got in that position it was one of those, well we can't follow those safety rules here. Warning signs about forklift traffic were ignored by the mechanics and engineers. Lucky none of them ever got killed. For those that don't know, forklifts literally have tons of counter weight. That would
really ruin your day getting hit by one.