Andrew,
Thanks, I appreciate your mantra. But my goal is the best possible quality at a reasonable price. I don't believe there is a significant difference in quality between the consumer level book makers as they all use similar offset printers (HP Indigo/Electroink) and papers. But there is a significant difference in prices. Here are current prices for the top 4 suppliers for a 100 page book.
$268 - Mixbook 11x14 Hardcover, Premium paper
$203 - Shutterfly 11x14 Hardcover, plain paper
$265 - Adoramapix 10x12.5 Hardcover, luster paper
$116 - Blurb 11x13 Hardcover, luster paper.
Those are base prices. Strangely, their base pricing for a 20 page book is close, but Blurb charges only $0.48 for additional pages, while the others range from $1.82 to $2.50. All but Adoramapix offer frequent discounts of 15% to 40%. The Blurb discount is currently 40%, so my 100 page book is only $70.
So, given that "find another shop" is not possible anywhere near this price point, how would you prepare images under the limitations of consumer level offset printing?