I can't help but feeling very envious (in a nice way) of your situation with coworkers. It seems like when you had an issue, you had someone 10 steps ahead of you willing to help out, give advice, lend a part etc.
This project seemed to go as well as my side projects, but when I run into a hiccup, I wait a month for a part on AliExpress, or wander around at Home Depot looking for something that I don't know what it is yet.
Kudos to you for surrounding yourself with great people. Thanks for the write up.
You likely dodged a bullet by getting rejected by FE International. I went through a couple of acquisition processes with them. Almost every person I dealt with there was dishonest and unprofessional.
I'm not sure if there's a common switch with less travel, but you could look into using spacer and/or landing pads to accomplish what you're looking for.
I believe I was rejected after a job interview because of not drinking.
Another boss I had any a different job told me he fired someone for not partying with everyone else. If you went to these parties and didn't drink, the boss would harass you all night.
I agree with you that many people are just self conscious, but it's not exclusively that way.