There are various experts' and parts of the listing standards that want to obstruct the use of power strips. They're not only tilting at windmills, they're also preventing QUALITY strips from being made. They've set their doctrine against the customers' wishes.
I know, right?
I've briefly seen (on YouTube) those transparently insincere PSAs against plugging heaters into (your) power strips. They might appear convincing enough to the layperson, but
I ain't having them; I do still have a few older Australian power-boards (as we call them) with proper contacts, and they
can sustain the full 10A through any one socket while keeping their cool.
Of course, the units available at modern "discount" stores are total junk (although to be fair,
most electrical products sold there are); so given
my past incident, I wouldn't even trust
those with an office PC (much less any
substantial load). Even they can survive full load
initially, though; 10A is no big deal until the contacts are well and truly
knackered, and that's exactly what happens in these cheaper power-boards (reportedly much like your "residential grade" wall outlets, which thankfully aren't a thing in Australia).
Indeed, it's my experience that products in general are
way more reliable in the absence of such theoretically baseless cop-outs as have been mentioned, and this applies to high-tech products (e.g. hard disk drives) just as it does to low-tech items...
