I see mention of water base poly a lot. I tried brand ? once a long time ago (maybe 1993), Norm on this old house referred to that brand as wonderful, healthy, ,, ,
My surface was just full of tiny bubbles. Maybe they came from the wood, sanded lightly,reapplied, they came back, again and again, even tried raising the humidity in the room to 80%, to let it dry slower (maybe the bubbles would pop and dry flat)

Have not used the stuff since, have they improved the stuff tons since then????