Yes the fuse is there only for the time when you stupidly forget you are plugged in to amps and try to measure the voltage of a supply. Just when the said supply is a 12V wall wart all you get is a bit of a spark and the wallwart getting warm. When you do this on a giant 3 phase bus bar the result is a huge arc flash and the chard remains of the electrician that did the stupid mistake.
Voltage overloads in multimeters are usually not as concerning since you rarely encounter more than 1000V at home and if you do it tends to be low current. So as long as you don't try to measure the output of a microwave oven transformer you should be safe.
The question is if a DIYer does the same amps jack mistake in his home mains distribution panel. Could a cheep meter and fuse become more dangerous in such a situation versus a HRC fuse?
I personally never have taken care of using only good quality meters on regular household 230/400V mains. I picked up whatever meter was handy, be it my good Agilent or the cheap 20€ rebadger.
Such accidents which do happen are newsworthy,& are tragedies to those concerned & their families, but are really statistically insignificant.
I have (& I am sure many others have) measured phase -to- phase on a (then) 254/440v system,using AVO 8,early Beckman DMMs,Fluke 77,& a few other multimeters.
When people set out to do such measurements,they approach them differently to "quick checks"on lower voltage circuits.
You don't just "grab the nearest meter", prance up to the 3 phase board like a Smurf and poke the probes in higgledy-piggledy.
The correct approach is to make sure that the test leads are
NOT in the current sockets,or if the connections are switched,the meter isn't on a current range.
With the leads correctly configured for voltage readings,check that the meter is switched to the appropriate AC voltage range.
Check the condition of the leads.
Be like Santa & "check it twice".
To be really sure,with the multimeter set up correctly,connect it across a known source of AC voltage ( normally in Oz,the nearest single phase 230v GPO).
This shows your meter actually works---a dead meter would be more dangerous than anything else.
Now,if you can possibly do so,rest the meter on the floor,or some other support,not handheld.
If at all possible,connect the probes before applying power to the circuit to be tested.
In many cases,you don't need to test "Phase to Phase" & can just measure the lower voltage "Phase to Neutral",or cheat even more & go "Phase to Earth".
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