FWIW, I think it's actually a bit better now than it was in the 2000s. There is still some of it going on, but it's not like in the Bionicle decade where some s

FWIW, I think it's actually a bit better now than it was in the 2000s. There is still some of it going on, but it's not like in the Bionicle decade where some sets had you practically just snapping the arms on an action figure. For example, my kid got #76113 (Spiderman Bike Rescue) for a birthday present recently, and although there are little plastic webbing pieces there are obviously specific to Spidey, on the whole, the bike is built honestly; it uses standard pieces in clever ways to create the unexpected shapes and angles that make it look good. And it's not like they didn't used to do this at least a little bit even in the good old days. Remember the LEGO castles with pre-fab wall and rock formation pieces, like #6090 released in 1995? Or the numerous pirate ship sets with big special hull and mast pieces, like #6268 and #6289, both also released in the mid-nineties?