Safety standards are the same for everybody, probably bigger companies take them more seriously as first, you want your products safe to begin with. then the fines can be huge if you are not responsible. For a small company you probably risk bankrupcy if they catch you not complying, you can face legal punishment as well. It is more serious than some people think.
What I was meaning with that is that some older effects also had that ground lifting circuit. You'll end isolating your ground more and more as they are technicall in series althoug most likely the ground will be shorted through the rest of the wiring. Still the principle is easy, try to keep one continuous ground, then act if there are problems
I have some cables made with the screen cut on one side, work good for things like FX loops. A 10-100Ω resistor instead of open probably is a better idea but you know... shoemaker's son goes barefoot haha. You couls add the capactiro and diodes across the resistor, if they fit in the jack, and you will have the full circuit in your cable,.
Transformers are OK as well but yes, you need to drive them properly to avoid loses or create resonances. I haven't had issues with the usual short cable between an FX loop and a rack for example
cheers!
