Eight people bailing by chapter 9 of a 600 page book sounds about right, and honestly I would have been the ninth. My own club tried Moby Dick two summers ago and I made it to page 140 before I started reading the same paragraph four times and just gave up, told everyone I "got busy with work" like a coward. Here's the thing though, a long book only works if the group actually finishes it, and most groups don't. You end up with four people who read the whole thing and seven who are faking it, and the fakers just sit there quiet while the four talk, which is not a discussion, that's a lecture. Two short books give everyone something to actually say, and you get twice the ground to cover. Guilt is not the same thing as depth, and your group proved it.

Pre cat lacquer on maple is a whole different animal than prefinished ply because the factory finish is baked on with UV cure, not air dried like what we spray. That baked coat is way harder than any water based or nitro you can put on at home, so you are not really comparing equal finishes, you are comparing a factory process to a garage process. The part nobody talks about is how the prefinished edges hold up over time in damp rooms, since the edge banding glue is the weak point and if it lifts you get a hairline gap that sucks up moisture. I still spray when the piece is getting stained or glazed so I can control the color, but for painted or clear maple vanities the factory stuff wins on time every single time. The real question is whether clients notice the seam on the edge banding after a couple years of steamy showers.