I wonder if this is a 'thing' with Ducatos? FWIW, we'd been using a coach company to service and MOT our van for our first three years of ownership. Then we got a 'minor' at MOT for the front brakes but the coach company couldn't fit us in before our next planned trip. We got another garage to check the brakes and replace as required: turns out there was almost no lining remaining on the pads and most of the braking effort came from steel-to-steel friction

To be fair, the second garage said it was impossible to check lining thickness without removing the road wheels (although I suspect it would be possible using an endoscope).