Like most things they eventually fail, guessing the mechanic had a good look over the suspension to find the other parts worn so if he didn't knock them they should be fine.
But easier enough for you to check before pulling it all apart, jack the car up so the front wheels are off the ground, grab the front tyre at 9 o'clock and 3 o'clock, push @ 9 pull @ 3 then reverse (push @ 3 pull @ 9) do this back n forth a few times and if there's no clunking movement they're fine, if there is clunking then make sure the car is on stands and get another person to look in under from the back of the wheel to look at the tierod end and make sure it's moving.
VT's can be fun, I have seen quite a few that destroy the thread in the rack when removing a rack end..... just a small warning, earlier vehicles used a washer with tabs that are belted over the rack end to stop it undoing, some smart cookie @ holden decided not to use this type, instead the rack is essentially center punched to stop it undoing and this causes the problem, when refitting new ones and you were lucky not to have to run a tap down the thread make sure you clean it out with brake cleaner to remove all oil and use loc-tite to retain the new ones.
If they're not stuffed leave them alone.
Passenger side can be tricky, sometimes you can feel movement with the above test and it's neither tierod end or the rackend, need to cut the ziptie off the boot and pull it away from the rack and look to see what's moving... there's a plastic bush in the rack that wears.... how far did you want to go with all the work?