It isn't men with guns that do the testing, it's the experts, test labs etc. It's the gov job to demand what special labelling etc is needed for what type of products, it's their job to establish what defines as "biodegradable", so not everyone can just follow X conditions and results based on what they like.

There are national and international standards, all of which require a level of authority to establish and for the entire manufacturing sector to be able to comply.

And no, you can list out 50 clauses etc by default, bringing an artwork file to physical products, each with different characteristics and tolerance just aren't that simple

Even colour matching can be extremely complex across different product types.

Automation also doesn't solve cross border legal dispute, if supplier A followed their own definition of red colour and you asked for bright red, who's at fault and without a gov, are you gonna fly there and negotiate? And if your client think it should be another shade just to mess with you, what you gonna do?

I have worked at least over 20 product types, high tech to promotional merch. None of it is easy and it is ever changing.