The only thing the machine shop does for me is all the machine work, measuring and cleaning. I take those numbers, feeler gauges and ring filer and build my own engines.
Also, I only take my engines to KNOWN engine builders. My current machine shop has been in business for some 40 years, his sons are now taking over the business and one went to my University for engineering. They also build all the spec Miatas, Pro stock, 5 sec pro mods as well as 1000 HP K series engines. The only other machine shop I trust is 1.2 hours away (and worth it).
King its tough to find a proper Machine shop. Some areas more than others are just blessed with capable shops. Sorry to hear all your failure points
Block is holding up well so far, plus 4 additional tear downs/rebuilds for my stupidity/ignorance as this was my first built engine entirely built by myself and the FSM for all the clearance numbers (nothing blown, just dropped shims, swapped oil lines, and routine checks to make sure everything is still functioning as it should. ). Its funny, I know this particular machine shop was capable, as they took it upon themselves to look up (from Nissan direct) the factory clearance specs from the valve cover down tot the oil pan and provided said sheet after the machine work to show the specs. This provided a certain piece of mind which most shops seem to not even want to provide a spec sheet.......
I guess your YMMV