Right! Most aren't happy unless it looks like a show piece. Doing "all that" is really for the concourse crowd, because it puts the price beyond that of a new carburetor. People see one that doesn't have a "perfect" finish and don't like it.
There's also the crowd that doesn't understand the little guy. Like me for instance. I never had a test mule when I was doing it and let people know that and my prices reflected it. If you're not willing to or are unable to at least remove the top and reset floats or make other adjustments, you probably need to go EFI. People have no idea how many different float adjustments there are for the same carburetor on the same or similar applications, so it's really a "guess" since every combo is different. Sometimes, things need final tweaking or adjustment once in the customer's hands.
It's a catch 22 for sure. I did the best I could with what I had. I probably honestly should have stayed away from it. But my thinking was I might could help some of my forum buddies and make a dollar or two. Doing Thermoquads, for example, isn't something you can really make "reasonable" money on because there are so many adjustments and so many variables AND the kits are expensive. Plus, the end user better be ready to do some adjustments up to and including removing the top and people just don't understand that. I don't care who you are doing it, unless you have a carburetor flow bench or a test mule, (or deep pockets) there's no way to guarantee anything. I do still do the occasional carburetor, but only for local people that bring the CAR so I can tune them and get them dead right before they leave. But I've done maybe three in the last as many years. Other than that, I won't do one.