I did some digging and I do see that language in both the Siemens and Eaton safety switch catalogs. So I am almost going to say you are correct, however they state this in their SCCR ratings section, so it is not clear to me if that statement is just for if/when you want to use the series combination ratings to get a higher than base 10k SCCR. Also while I sort of agree with your statement "of course with service equipment things are different" where is that stated? I combed thru the catalog and although they say SUSE, they dont state any exception to the must be protected by a breaker wording. ITs all confusing. Then we have what SQ D says (which I have complained about before and makes no sense).
"a Non-Fused Safety Switch by itself does NOT provide any short circuit current rating because it does not contain any overcurrent protection. HOWEVER, any brand of circuit breaker or fuse not exceeding the ampere rating of the switch may be used ahead of a non-fusible safety switch when there is up to 10,000A MAXIMUM of short circuit current available."
Of course the "does not provide any short circuit current rating" makes absolutely no sense, but they also dont see to offer any allowance to use it as service equipment then. So V confused.