Sorry folks...I had an old timer moment...power active is live at the transformer before the fuse and switch, I wrote it wrong above.
My first thought was this item is intrinsically safe because it uses a plastic box and you really cannot touch any live part, but it's not because of the wiring. Yes it's rare to see transformers short, but I have seen it and bejesus they stink when they go up! But as you said it's very rare because of the way they are made etc. But there again, if they mfgr cannot wire the switch and plug right is the transformer any better. Well their grounding wasn't.
Which bring me to my finalisation, yes this is not right, yes it presents little danger but it does present some hazards. Yes it would fail Australian safety standards but is effectively safe enough for users. But I guess I am not one of the "most" users...I pull things apart (and sometimes cannot get them back together!
) to check, correct and improve.
In my case, with this soldering station, I tossed all of the insides because it was under performing and make my own, changing the switch and lead of course
Certainly I wasn't particularly aware that OS plugs could be plugged in either way (well not quite I did have some idiot twist the pins of a 110V plug to fit an Australian socket for a light table, plugged it in and bang!), hadn't really thought about it much lately (which I admit is naive) even though I've worked with a lot of French/US Avionic gear, mostly powered by 115V 3phase. But yes US 110V plugs would be a nightmare also aware they have 220V in some households (for higher powered domestic appliances)....going to look those plugs up now!