Excessive costs for the kitchen?!

Yes, just buy somewhere else. But don’t be surprised if your property eventually becomes worthless or its value decreases instead of increasing, because due to the buying behavior of “as cheap as possible, but cool” a lot of jobs around your area will eventually disappear.
If the only supermarket here closes because everyone shops at Netto, the place is no longer attractive for some.

Regardless of where the kitchen was produced, regional jobs are attached. Sales, planning, assembly. That’s what Ypg meant.

Even though it is becoming increasingly unpopular today to defend capitalism: if the performance of regional jobs is no longer competitive, it is better for everyone if they go bankrupt. Everyone should produce what they can manufacture most efficiently. Resting on achieved prosperity and saying “yeah, come on, just spend the money, they need it” leads to a dangerous weakening of the entire economy (Japan is an impressive example of sluggishness caused by prosperity).
If the products in Germany are no longer better in quality or service for their higher price, there is no justification to buy them.

(Disclaimer: I also bought my kitchen at the kitchen studio because of the service. However, the quality would not be worth the price to me.)

That's true, what you say. But especially highly automated furniture production, and kitchens are definitely part of that, has a very strong presence in Westphalia, because quality is important after all, and it is often top-notch.

I have to admit that I buy a lot at IKEA and also really like the kitchens (design), but I wouldn’t want my utility room unit from 2013 to be in the kitchen in terms of quality. Metod seems to be much better?! What I find confusing (in hindsight), though, is that even the Faktum?, so the ones from before 2014, were praised so highly in this forum, the ones I installed in the utility room. The entire interior design was not really made for constant use. Not even my drawers, which I bought as base cabinets in 2001, hardly bore any load. For me, Ikea was therefore out when planning.

I know exactly what you mean by that. We bought an Ikea kitchen in 1992 and I replaced it after 1 year because a friend of mine installed a Bax kitchen as a reference kitchen. That one was/is of course great but I wouldn’t have been able to pay anywhere near the original price. The parts back then were really flimsy, which is why I didn’t want an Ikea kitchen anymore. Only when that same acquaintance (no longer a kitchen installer) mentioned Ikea kitchens as a sensible option because they had improved the quality did I give in. The kitchen now is stylish and high-quality, even after the 2nd move. With a bit of imagination, you can implement a lot with it or nicely complement it with third-party products. In terms of quality, in my opinion, you can absolutely go for Ikea kitchens nowadays and they would be sufficient for 98% of users here; it was really different in the past… because of quality reasons. But of course, there are also other decent kitchen brands. Basically, I do believe that the cooking skills of today’s users have not grown proportionally to the now expensively purchased designer kitchens and appliances… or where do the high sales of convenience food, semi-prepared, and frozen products otherwise come from?? For that, a ceramic cooktop is often already oversized. Like the Bild newspaper, nobody reads it, yet it’s mostly bought.

oh wow pagoni, right on the sore spot....cooking skills, gourmet cuisine, and so on.

Basically, I do believe that the cooking skills of today's users have not proportionally grown with the now expensively purchased designer kitchens and appliances....

I'm totally with you: my car, my house, my kitchen... well, I think glass countertops are really cool and also a massively oversized induction cooktop with consistent heating across 90 cm width is really practical when you have a roaster, pan, and pot on it at the same time, but when does that wear out or get used up? For me, a flawed plan in the sense of "you only build once," "I want exactly THAT," and status considerations, without thinking whether a slightly smaller size wouldn't also look good. Sometimes we're talking about additional costs in the four-figure range... But I'm probably comparing a VW Golf with an Audiii Quuuu ...

Amazon is, by the way, not a brand

Of course it is a brand. And that is what makes Amazon so valuable. Amazon is the brand for online shopping par excellence. I don't like them and therefore don't have them in my portfolio. There are alternative investments.

With our Metod the whole thing is very solid and durable. Honestly.

For our boys' kitchens, Metod is clearly below Nolte in our house. Price aside.

As I already said, I have rarely read so much nonsense. You also don't buy the first house you see, no matter how high the price is. And what do you think many windows/stairs/fences come from?

No, that's not nonsense. I demand a lot of money for my performance and am also willing to pay accordingly for my neighbors. I'm no island. If I can't afford something locally, then I simply don't do it. Most home builders only have luxury problems from elevated standards or unrealistic wishes anyway.

If the performance of the regional jobs is no longer competitive, it is better for everyone if they go bankrupt.

And what do you do with your demands and performances, do you arrogantly exempt yourself from them? Either you live in a community and accept the local price level, from which you also benefit yourself, or you simply give up consumption. Earning expensively locally and buying cheaply elsewhere may work individually for a while and for some people. It is not a contribution to society. In the long run, it is also harmful to oneself to harm the society you live in for selfish reasons to have a short-term benefit. "Cheap" buying elsewhere, so my thesis, is ultimately rather stupid and short-sighted.