Yes, the waste of parts sometimes does get irksome.
I like to replace all the fragile parts that I can with brass, (guns, railings, flagstaffs, etc.) but unless it was supposed to be one of the earlier steel decks, I like the realism of wood. Of course, part of that it that wood is so much easier to work and cut out hatches and install hinges than the brass too.
I started my wooden deck because I wanted to have the drainage slots and was using a Dremel to cut away the plastic from the back. It was working, and I liked the look of it, but it actually seemed much harder than just making a deck from scratch. Too tense trying to make sure I didn't cut too deep. And then there was trench for the schnorkel, which I didn't want. I decided that to hide the schnorkel meant a new deck, and if I was making a new deck, then why not put on a deck gun, and then I had to research for a while to find a VII C/41 with a deck gun in RL.
And then if I'm making a whole deck, and drilling out the free flow holes in the casing, I'd better make the PH, and then if I did the PH, it might be hard to see even with light coming in from the slats, so why not make the hatches open with the same method I used on the 37mm shield and the main hatch. And then why not make the ammo hatches work, etc. etc. etc.
Such is exactly how the "snowball effect" you mentioned work. I quickly ended up with something that's going to be around 2,000 pcs.
After tying hundreds of ratlines over the decades, I at least came up with one good result. I'd learned all the proper sailor's knots and one day decided that I might have learned how to sail from building models. So I rented a sailboat and got hooked. Now on my 3rd real boat and I've found that there are many things on models that are easier to figure out because of it.
I'm sure Siara would be happy to provide some more photos. He does excellent work and his posts are always interesting and informative.
I'd put in photos of mine but don't have a digital camera, other than a cellphone, and the focus and closeups with it aren't all that good to see the small detail.