There are still shenanigans every day in the appraisal world. My parents are in the process of buying a house right now and the appraiser came out, walked around the house for less than 5 minutes. My dad noticed the guy had left and asked the agent if that was it and she didn't know so she called him and he said said yep, that was all he needed.
The appraisal came back exactly $1,000 higher than the contract amount... coincidence? Please
You also have the other end of spectrum with guys like the OP is dealing with...they will nit pick every detail because they will charge $100 to come back out and re-inspect.
Someone always has too much power