That depends on the local government, I guess. Where I live, I don't have to pull a permit to run a new GFCI outlet, and if I happen to do it wrong and my house

That depends on the local government, I guess. Where I live, I don't have to pull a permit to run a new GFCI outlet, and if I happen to do it wrong and my house burns down, the insurance company won't know who did the work. Regardless, your post illustrates the entire point here: people are afraid to do their own work for nebulous "liability" reasons. It's sad, really. I'm probably much more likely to die in a car crash than because of some botched DIY electrical work. Humans are terrible at assessing risk.