Having to sort through some boards to find the better boards is nothing recent. A "better" lumber yard may have some overall better boards but if you do not sort, you will get some stinkers. I remember going to a "better yard" some years back and still had to do some sorting. Home Depot will have some good boards but there may/will be some pretzels from others doing sorting. Ripping a wider board is a great option, still some sorting there. Building the same project with 2x6 or 2x8 will build a stronger frame. Helpful discussion, going to build a stand for a radial arm saw to line up at steel table height ( just picked table up). After looking at premade bench options, building one made far more sense from both a financial perspective and a quality/strength perspective.