If you’ve not read “Boundaries and Landmarks A Practical Manual” by A.C. Mulford, 1912. I recommend you do so.

He said “The training of the surveyor consists essentially in practice in turning angles, measuring lines, and getting over obstructions, to which are added rather meager suggestions on the compass and the re-running of old surveys. He is considered preeminently a measure of land. This is very true, and in certain localities and under certain conditions this may compose almost the entire work of the surveyor. But in the vast majority of cases the actual measuring of land forms the smaller portion of his duties.

His hardest work is often, to use a colloquial phrase, to 'find the land' to be surveyed.” ...

“For after all, when it comes to a question of the stability of property and the peace of the community, it is far more important to have a some-what faulty measurement of the spot where the line truly exists that it is to have an extremely accurate measurement of the place where the line does not exist at all."

I think this is true today. We may have GPS equipment that is very accurate, but providing the correct location on the property is what we are charged with. We are fact finders, not advocates for the client.

Boundaries and Landmarks A Practical Manual by A.C. Mulford Link.