Let's take the original post as factual then.
I would not expect any FI to send a student to me for a PPL skill test who they weren't pretty sure would pass and when I'm the FI I don't. I probably start a test with the attitude that I'm going to pass the candidate, unless they do something stupid, unsafe or illegal.
It's probably fair game in the military to set the occasional trap, maybe even at CPL level, but we shouldn't be doing it to PPL students. If something happens on test and they deal with it badly, then fair enough, but we shouldn't be creating situations to try and fail people. What level the aircraft is to be flown at is the choice of the candidate, I'll ask them what they intend to do, but wouldn't tell or ask for a particular altitude, that's their choice.
Having said that, if the FE did ask for a climb into CAS, then the student should have enough awareness of his position and surrounding airspace to not do it. Isn't that just the kind of blind obedience or deferring to greater experience, that human factors training was brought into the PPL syllabus to prevent?