Does it count if nobody else can tell it's bad but you? My first insert took me like 6 hours and I thought it was garbage, but when I showed a buddy he was like "dude this is fine." Turns out I was comparing my stuff to people who've been doing it for years. The real trick isn't the time, it's learning when to stop messing with it before you make it worse. I redid one insert like 5 times and the first version was honestly the best one.

Notice this same tradeoff everywhere lately, like with my kitchen knives. The pretty wooden one looks great on the rack but needs babying, while the ugly plastic handle one gets used daily and never quits. Or think about shoes, the fancy pair that sits in the closet vs the beat up sneakers by the door. We keep buying things for how they look on display instead of how they actually work in our hands. Your mom gets flat pages every time she opens that book, which means she actually opens it. That wobble is just the price of something being used instead of admired.