Isn't this bureaucracy run amok? Or is it really not "any", and only
applies to scaffolding above some size?

No, Henry - it's bureaucracy attempting to counteract what Darwin said was
natural.

So it playing with high-rpm spinning carbide, but we all do it.

I built staging to help with my addition 2 segments, just under eight feet
wide with crossbars at 4-feet and 7.5 feet high, so that I could change
platform height. These segments were light enough that I could drag them
around where I needed them. With the 2 segments and a platform in between I
had about a 23' run.

X-braces (10' 2x4's) front and back provided stability and a good climbing
surface to mount it.

Perhaps I cheated darwin :-)

I would not have attempted to go higher than that.

The OP did not tell us the scale of work that he had in mind.

-Steve