100% a money grab, especially now that it's been privatized. My partner just did the written test and at least a quarter of the questions were those inappropriate "What is the punishment for offence Y?" questions. Why is knowing that at all important? As long as we know what things are illegal it should be enough. Those are the only ones she got wrong and had to take the stupid test twice.
No doubt that they put that many of those useless types of questions because they know if they didn't no one would fail. But this way they get a lot of people taking it twice, which you can do without even waiting, as long as you pay more fees for each try.
I strongly disagree, these driving tests do nothing for promoting safety, and everything for minor rule following. In some cases what they teach is actually less safe. Like having to waggle your head around to "show the tester you are looking" or not using backup cameras and other driver aids.
If we want to increase safety we should send people to skid school periodically, not retest them on useless easily abused by testers items. Also we should invest more heavily in public transit. I'd far rather see money go to public transit then further enable these private testing facilities to let their poorly trained testers continue abusing people trying to get their license and learn actual practical skills.