And here is the second, on a more budget version.
With: Sensah SRX Pro groupset. JuinTech F1 brakes. Scenicx crankset. Shimano 11-46 cassette and chain.
And nice Lightbicycle wheels.

This one, is probably the most painful build I ever experienced because of the 3 cables stem routing.
The JuinTech springs were not strong enough to pull back the cable due to the friction inside the stem/handlebar curves.

The Ritchey Comp Logic-E Cartridge Drop-In 1.5" came to liberate me from this.
However it doesn't sit flush with the frame, so water may enter too easily there, which is never good.
And the rubber provided to wrap the cable exits is designed for 2 cables, not the 3 I had.
This smells future maintenance issues.

Once the cabling nightmare was solved, the Sensah group and Juintech brakes were easy to setup.

Anyone have any info on this ThinkRider honeycomb saddle ~122g?

This is light for the apparent volume.
At 163€ a pop, that's in branded saddles territory

... I wasn't impressed with the axles...

What was wrong with the axles? I always use the ones coming with the frame.
Putting some copper grease on the thread as they are hard to start with.

My only bad one is on my FM936 where I got a Torx30, that no multi tool has.
But by using/forcing an hex 6mm, I converted it 

So its more like a tribute rather than actual service cost?

Or a raisonnable cost to fly effortlessly a big box from China to your doorstep.

... and go with the most reasonable one in terms of shipping cost and frame itself.
Unfortunately its a thing to consider if you are charged over 200$ for shipping.

For many years the cheapest shipping for a frame was around $90 by EMS, the postal service. So we talk about a $100 difference.
I advise people to go with XDB, WXY like shipping companies (to Europe) for customs "optimisations", speed, costs and hassle.
And it was and still is $150-180 for years.
y
Amazon discovered very early that shipping costs were a psychological barrier to buy and optimised about it.
For the budget of a bike and the years you will ride it, it can be relativised.

Could you  let me know what tool you used for the misaligned brake mounts on the vbr-218 (I'm assuming you had the issue on the 218   (rim or disc?))

For the disc stuff, I know that eventually I will have to bleed the brakes on the trek madone & at some point I will learn how to do that.

Canyon's are pretty nice, my wife is riding the canyon aeroroad, though she does not like the shimano 105 groupset (non-Di2), compared to her old campy chorus groupset from 2005

This one: https://www.vartools.uk/disc-brake-mount-facing-tool-c2x36007373
The investment doesn't make any sense to build just one bike.
I've never built a Velobuild. But many others and almost always disc.
We should all unionise and tell all sellers here: we only buy if you have the mount faced !

I can understand your wife! I moved my Campy EPS 12sp from the Canyon to the Aethos. No other group convinced me to switch.
Although I'm a huge fan of Eagle AXS for MTB and as a mullet for gravels.

... it does look like a rim/campy would be easier for me to build as a first bike & maintain...
I have no clue about the toyota/audi/lambo comparisons ...

The learning curve is steeper for disc brakes.
But after sone misses and youtube vids, you'll know how it works.

Never had any of the issues you listed on many frames.
The most annoying though is misaligned brake mounts.
So common that I finally bought the tool to face them.

For the car metaphor.
For road bikes, since I descend often at 80-90km/h when possible, I psychologically preferred to rely on branded frames.

I did ride for few years a Canyon Ultimate CF-SLX, fine.
When a tube cracked just before a big Alpine event, I converted my Carbonda CFR-505 to a road bike, it did ride as fine.
Then got back the Canyon finally replaced, and didn't notice any significant difference.

I moved to an Aethos S-Works now, and... it is fine too. Again not a revolution either, except maybe the number of people telling me how nice my bike is
Each time however they were equipped with hi-end electronic shifting and hydro disc brakes and very good wheels and tires.

Most of us will be happy with the bike they build from a reputable seller here.
And for me the equipment and wheels/tires is what makes the bike.
I'm not convinced the frame is that important.

Wait what is your wheel set up?... I am reconsidering the whole Idea of a rim brake build first get the feel for everything  then adding a disc build and just jumping in feet first on the a 218 or 168 disc.  Or if someone else has a better build. because I either love or hate the 218.

Sorry, I missed that. I'm disc only for years, and 32mm is only possible with them I'm afraid.