Did you win that argument or did the ground win it for him? I've watched a crew spend half a day fighting a rock that the "plans" said wasn't there, and let me tell you, the rock never once looked at the paperwork. Sounds like your foreman was right, and you were just too young to admit it yet.

Been there, man. I once spent a whole Sunday messing with my oven temp and water amounts because my loaves kept coming out dense, and it turned out my cheap plastic bench scraper was smashing the dough down every time I shaped it. Swapped it for a metal one and boom, open crumb. It's always the dumb stuff you never think to check first. Three trips for flour just to find out it was a six dollar tool is such a kick in the teeth.

Wait, he said he never used slides on anything under 24 inches wide? That is wild to me. A 23 inch drawer with no slides sounds like a nightmare for anyone actually using the thing every day, not just a shop trick. Wood runners can work fine but they wear, they swell with humidity, and the drawer gets sloppy over a few seasons no matter how tight your dovetails are. I get what he is saying about the box carrying its own load, but a good joint and a slide are not enemies, they do two different jobs. Sounds like a guy who built furniture nobody pulled on, and there is a big gap between that and a kitchen.