Mike at the local hardware store in Portland set me straight about the same thing back in 2019. I was using original Titebond for everything including dovetailed drawers and big table tops. He said I was making my life harder than it needed to be. The slow set glue has its place for complex assemblies but for simple face frames and most joinery it just slows you down. I keep both types now and grab the medium set for 80% of my work. It speeds things up a lot without giving up strength.

Marks rule basically turns Catan into a game of getting the biggest numbers and ignoring everything else. The 4:1 trade is the whole point, it forces you to actually spread out and make deals with other players instead of just grabbing the best resource spots and calling it a day. Your friend turned a strategy game into a sprint, which is why nobody had fun. Next time tell him the house rule should be a 3:1 trade with the bank, not 2:1, that at least keeps some tension.