The industry thats feeding the masses has setup the offerings to where there is no reading the grain and color. Thats taken care of with toners and glazes. The jobs we do now can be somewhat painful in that way because what the customers see are even grained, mono-toned, all look the same, and your forced to match that. I am spraying toners and adding dyes to clears more than ever to even out the colors. And you see why its done because it makes you lazy and makes it easier. You can bury some bad color, things that look like they will never fly when the stain went on look great after a couple coats out of the booth.
Im sure there will always be some demand for the old, bespoke, unique, stuff that is not worth the time for the big shops or the customer just wants something thats not from a big shop.
The pinging on the radar for me now is that even out into the markets that have traditionally kept the detailed custom shops alive, they are seeming to care less and less, coupled with ever more varied offerings from the factory shops (rift veneers, laminates, on and on). Add in that cabs are now like an outfit that you change and oy vey.
We build a few houses a year. Found a local manufacturer of doors and boxes. About 10 years ago the owner changed all the tools. Its a fully automated factory with 4-5 machines each with six figure price tags some above 300k. His employees are basics and just about minimum wage i guess. I asked how he maintains the machines if needs service. He flys in technican from germany.
In the table tennis video there's so much artificial camera work they must be really shifting the apparent result.
It's like watching the chase sequence in a movie where the camera angle changes every three seconds. There is a reason...
AKA - "The human termite"