Bob Kuykendall wrote:
hours of time it takes to build, and for sure never multiply that
effort by any decent hourly wage. Hand-building stuff never comes
either easy or cheap.

A nitpick, about your statement "decent hourly wage," that reinforces
your point-

If the folks putting in the work hand building said aircraft are any
good at it, they'll probably demand (and be able to command as
premium labor) more than just a "decent hourly wage." Meantime they
also need to be trained. With normal turnover the new ones need to
be trained (using use up the time of the old experienced ones).

In a manegerial sense, good people in a workforce cost a lot of money
but are usually a relative bargain when you consider the cost of bad
people (employees who are a net liability). There are a lot of
idiots out there, and some make it through a hiring process.

And so on and so on, like you said hand-building isn't cheap.