Heard a geotech say once: skip the test, pay twice.

Learned the hard way that the simple stuff is usually the answer. Same thing with my truck not starting in January, turned out to be a dirty battery cable, not the starter I was about to replace. Cold makes everything act up but it's usually just gunk or ice in the way.

Wait, a finisher really said your gaps were "bored"? That is wild to me because I would have taken even gaps as the goal too. I hear what you're saying about leaving the bottom a hair wider and the top tighter, but honestly trusting that by eye would take me way longer than three kitchens to feel right.