Elite is selling so many of them, i think if they sucked or self destructed, we'd have heard about it.
+1 on hub maintenance though. I pay much more attention to my bikes since waxing my chains, because it's not nasty to handle anymore. So wet riding means water will go places it shouldn't be, so expect to take stuff apart more often to clean and regrease. Just like maintaining pedals, or other bits, i'd say.

Well, if oyu think going directly is a blast..no way....

The sellers just do not care....

Idk how it is to deal with Ltwoo directly. What i do know is that dealing with my reseller is torture.

Finally, I received the pictures from Carol at LC. The paint job looks amazing, and I was promised that they will ship the frame tomorrow. The entire process experienced significant delays compared to the promised lead times, but I hope the wait will be worth it. I will post the final mounted pictures with custom decals (which are yet to be designed).

You will absolutely receive it in time for winter

Update on the clicking noise. It was not the BB. It seems that this is coming from the pedals (Look Keo). It was getting worse on my rides so I finally removed them, added grease and reinstalled them. That seems to have stopped the annoying clicking noise.

Same happened to me on a garmin vector pedal a few weeks ago, and the same to a friend on his garmin vector. Took apart, cleaned, greased, click gone.
Pedals are very prone to small click noises.

I would honestly just expect no quality control whatsoever from velobuild.
That does not mean the average quality of bikes that are shipped to the customers is bad (especially for the price), it just means there is no established process that consistently checks if what is shipped out meets some kind of internal quality standard or is exactly what the customer ordered.

If the production process is running great at that moment and you aren't looking for anything special, you'll probably get a frame punching way above its price point. If the workers in the factory had a shitty day or were in a crunch to get a batch of frames done before the holidays, you'll get a horrible frame in the mail. They might replace that shitty frame free of charge or completely refuse to do anything at all, again depending mostly on the luck of the day (and to a part your reach in media...).

I wish there was a dislike button. Who are you, and how much 1st hand experience with VB and other frames do you have?
Saying there is "no quality control whatsoever from velobuild" is simply false. I don't even want to argue, I just wish posts could be downvoted.

Frame shipping cost USD 106 (VeloBuild), while the wheels cost USD 53 (AliExpress).

Haha, yeah I agree, that was the first thing I noticed after taking the photo. The AirTag has now been relocated. 

Thanks. Yeah so for everything shipped, you're saving a non trivial amount vs Europe. Applied to all components, it's probably quite a lot.

I am considering either an ICAN A22 (I love the black color) or an ELVES Avari Pro. The ELVES is UCI approved, unlike the ICAN.

the ican is quite old with recommended 25/28C tyres. That's very much not future proof.
the elves is surprisingly heavy (baby size 990g) and maxes out at 30C.

Have a look at sp cycle SP-R025-SL - you can get it for cheaper than what the website says. SP cycle = Tideace = haidelibicycle.com = disai. So if you email all of them you'll get the best deal.
SP Cycle has several models you may like.
Lightcarbon has a model or 2 you'll like
I really like my long teng 268.
Velobuild is now consistently making nice frames, the 268 is proving very popular.
Given the elves look like an endurance bike, the yishun R1018 may be good for you - super light, monocoque -.

I would never buy an ican nor an elves myself

Re. tools, have a look at a few bike builds video on YT. you'll quickly notice what tools you need.