Two true stories:

I was on a business trip to San Francisco and headed up to Sonoma to see about checking out in an airplane. A group of CFIs were talking about a pilot meeting the evening before at which a FSDO inspector insisted that, while either the CFI or the rated trainee could log PIC only one of them could and they had to choose.

The FSDO in Buffalo NY used to have a web page. On it they published that every leg of a student pilot cross country needed to be >50 NM in order to count. I think there was a mass email campaign and it was removed within a week.

That's not a slam on FAA inspectors. The ones I've met have been generally knowledgeable and professional. But some of this stuff is not exactly the most important think on their radar and there are knowledge gaps with them as much as with anyone else.