If more people died as a result of improperly installed water heaters, you'd see changes starting at the top restricting the ability to casually go to your local hardware store to buy one of these.
It's been months since I've installed one, had a train engineer joke with me that "Hell you don't even need plumbers anymore with those sharkbites!"
"I put in a water heater in like 15 minutes! Bought a couple sharkbites and hooked up the electric and was gone within an hour!"
He's got a valid point......you make it that easy and that will draw the cheap right to it like moths to a lightbulb.
In the perspective of a homeowner.....here's a quick synopsis:
Homeowner WANTS to do it right, knows that plumbers make a living installing water heaters every day *except me!*
They call and get pricing, averaging $300-$600 for replacement given the circumstance. This does not include the cost of the heater, either.
They talk to their neighbor, they have a handyman that put in their water heater years ago with no problems to speak of, and he was cheap, like $100 cheap because somebody invented some wizbang fittings that take knowledge right out of the equation, just push and fit.
Given the fact that people in general won't spend more than they really want to, and if given "options" to save money and still have hot water,
How would plumbers ever be able to stop this? It's never going to happen.
There's somebody always doing these sort of things on the cheap and I know of tons of them that do it. Handymen, hacks, remodelers, cabinet guys, you name it.
I used to run down a guy really hard that was unlicensed and was notorious for ripping people off, but the powers that be wouldn't take the initiative to go after them. And if they did? they wouldn't have the time to actively pursue them because there's a million other important things to do other than chase somebody under the brow.
Hell there for awhile they was going after us at the home improvement stores for not pulling permits on water heaters.....????
Now back to my women's olympic volleyball. They need me.