'Minds me of a story..... (A bin there done that story.)
When we sold our 1983 O'day 34 some time ago the prospective buyer hired a local surveyor whom we had used for the purchase of a previous boat, therefore we trusted his ability and knowledge and were comfortable with him inspecting our boat. When the survey was scheduled both prospective buyer and prospective seller (me) were present and accompanied the surveyor as he crawled, tapped, opened lockers, snooped in tiny spaces, looked at the engine, and eventually did a "sea trial" (read short boat ride) to run the engine. The entire day (pushing 6 hours) was spent doing the inspection. I later compared that day to a six-hour trip to the dentist. That buyer did not complete the purchase, but the next group of "friends" who came aboard with the person who did buy the boat surely met a more prepared seller who had fixed some of the "recommendations" made verbally by the surveyor. Furthermore, they were politely told to leave the ball-peen hammer on the dock! I showed them the locations of any suspected wetness in the deck because the blue tape was still in place from the survey.
Points I want to make: (1) Buyer and seller should be present at the survey if at all possible. (2) Both will have questions and comments that the surveyor might be willing to consider. (3) Both will undoubtedly learn important facts about the boat being surveyed and about boats in general. (4) Buying a boat without an accredited survey will surely have conditions that the casual/first-time buyer will not recognize. (5) Finally, the checklist that has been discussed might be useful as a short, handy guide for the person who is buying for the first time or plans to use the checklist as he/she looks over a boat in which he/she might have an increasing interest. (6) Few, if any, surveyors will find every fault. A novice using a checklist as a guide certainly will not find them all.