Are certification important in the fiber optics industry?
It will depend upon the type of certificate, what is certified and through who is granted. Several certifications refer to the inherent safety of a product, regarding accidental electrical shock. Actually some certifications attest to the fact, the contraption will not kill you, but as nothing or very little, so far as the performance of the product. The certificate for a washing machine like nothing to the effect that the object will wash clothes; only this is unlikely which you will get an electrical shock.
Several other certifications refer to the performance, but unluckily, these are not required. In the fiber optics industry even these certificates are, very frequently meaningless because there is small or no control on the interface between fiber and illuminator. A laboratory report will means that an illuminator delivers too many screen lumens but cannot say how many will find into the fiber, since that will depend upon a number of factors totally outside their scope.