Statistically, I believe licensing is a good thing, as it keeps lots of dumbasses who don't know what they're doing from fucking shit up. However, there are tons of people who are licensed who intentionally do half-assed work and don't do things up to code, regardless. There are also some people who intentionally forgo licensing to save on money and whatnot who DO know what they're going and how to properly do things according to code. So there are people who are not licensed who will do a better job and work that is up to code while there are people who are licensed who will do a shitty job and their work won't be up to code. This is the reality.

I've been renting my whole adult life, and one of the biggest headaches with renting is that whenever something goes wrong, the landlord either won't do shit, or they'll send some retarded shithead to come fix your issue. Most of the time, if you're not a dumbass, you can fix the thing yourself and do a better and more proper job than that retarded ape they send over. I've had not one, but two plumbers the landlord sent come over to repair my toilet, and the repair they did is absolutely non-standard. I have no idea where the fuck they even got the idea from. The floor in the second story bathroom is not even, so the toilet sits at an angle. You would need to completely redo the floor in second story bathroom to fix the issue. The floor flange was fucked up and bent somehow, but instead of actually fixing the problem, they just added a bit more wax around it and placed some plastic shims, but these shims were those little plastic crosses I recall seeing people using when installing tile. They also fucked up the floor bolts on the toilet. They didn't fix the issue, they just patched things up a bit. It didn't take long for the toilet to start getting problems again, so I had to take the shit apart and replace the flange. I fucking wish I owned my own house, but I'm still too impoverished at 25.