They just did that to have a paper trail for any lawsuits from shareholders. Far cheaper to buy magic straps than shell out for lawsuits.
Certainly hoping you read the rest of the post that you didn't quote, cause I did agree a quick touch to metal is good to discharge any buildup when you first approach a box... It's just silly to suggest that you must keep yourself constantly grounded throughout the process, ala ESD straps and gloves and other malarky. Though if your job is to assemble boxes all day long, it's probably easier to use gloves just because you will sometimes forget to touch a grounding point. Forgetfulness is probably the real reason those companies trained you, more than anything special about ESD products.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Xrati
Boards also have components mounted top and bottom so by laying the board on a surface you could damage components from the pressure applied on the board for installation.
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Oh? All I ever see on the bottom of motherboards are embedded wires and bits of solder, neither of which are particularly damageable. Certainly, mounting the CPU externally is ok if you place it on a soft surface, like a sofa or a carpeted floor (which cannot get any static discharge unless you spend time dragging it along!). Towel underneath it on the table, perhaps.
I'd actually be more worried mounting a tricky CPU with the motherboard IN the case, because those mounting points give really poor support for pressing down on the board. The actual location of the mounting screws is pretty arbitrary, and doesn't really give optimal support to every part of every motherboard. Sometimes a CPU might be mounted in the center of 4 supports, sometimes inbetween two of them. A nice flat (and soft!) surface supporting the entire motherboard gives far, far less opportunity to flex it. Luckily CPU/fan mounting brackets have gotten a lot less ****ty in recent years, but it has traditionally been a rather worrisome task.