Can we talk about the welding test double standard?

I got turned down for a shop job in Gary last month because my 6G coupon had a tiny lack of fusion a third of the way in. Fair enough, that's on me. But the same week, a buddy of mine passed a field test where the inspector barely glanced at his root pass before stamping it. We both run the same process, same filler, same heat. Why do shop tests get picked apart under a magnifying glass while field tests get a pat on the back? I get that conditions differ, but a bad weld is a bad weld no matter where you lay it. Is anyone else seeing this gap between shop and field expectations, or is it just the contractors around here playing favorites?