I never have, and I've been in embedded for ages. So I've dealt with my fair share of chips, consumer electronics and not. But one vital thing to understand is

I never have, and I've been in embedded for ages. So I've dealt with my fair share of chips, consumer electronics and not. But one vital thing to understand is that a lot of those "vendor recommendations" exist to cover for rare 1% to 0.1% edge case failures. You can put together 20 PCs, with none of them dying from ESD, and conclude that ESD "isn't a real issue". But if you have a company that puts together tens of thousands of PCs per month? Then those ugly 0.1% edge case failures WILL pop up and they WILL cost you. And if you employ enough people, one of them might be a son of Zeus with a wild Wimshurst machine hairstyle - capable of emitting two high power ESDs, complete with an audible crackle and a visible spark, per minute. So ESD straps it is. The same applies to things like humidity control or reflow profiles for electronics. Not an issue ~99% of the time. The remaining ~1% can fuck you over in mass manufacturing, so disrespect the vendor at your own peril.