It seems the clown car madness gets into just about everything.
I saw a video where a gearhead enclosed steel shelving with plywood making the shelving into closed cabinets. The subject gearhead was focused, used shop grade plywood, slam bam done. Quick & cost effective.
My approach also used the shelving as the bones, but I went off the reservation with birch ply and poplar edging for the boxes and panel double doors. In short, I likely spent 3 or 4 times as much time and money for the same functional resSult.
I was absent when the economics of focus were covered.
Sometimes, like some of what Michael experienced falls into the "stuff happens" column. Those who look for stuff to fix, will find stuff to fix.