Note even the device with failure rate of 0.000000001% but which doesn't comply to some (even completely bogus) law and which must be backed out from the market because of this non-compliance can't be called really "reliable". That is, it may cost the company and customers way more than some complete junk that complies to all the respective standards but breaks half of the time.

Not questioning necessity of the EMC standards, they are some kind of law. So, unless your electronics company is secretly an organized crime organisation, you'd better comply...