Honestly the part that got me was learning what some of that particle board is actually made from. Ground up trash wood, old pallets, who knows what else. Then they glue it all together with enough chemicals to make your eyes water. The whole thing just feels so cheap and sad.
Read something last week about how much forest gets cleared for this stuff. They showed photos of whole hillsides stripped bare just to make particle board filler. The article said a lot of that wood comes from places with weak rules, so it's basically illegal logging. Then the finished cabinets get shipped across oceans, burning fuel the whole way. Makes you wonder why we bother when solid local wood lasts decades.