Silverado_9c3, I guess you could say, "not entirely confident in others", "paranoid" seems like overstatement to me. How well to do any job, and in fact whether to do it at all or to farm it out, is an entirely personal decision.
I discovered as a teenager, about 50 years ago, that my standards are higer than most other people's standards. Even as a kid, I saw 2 options; lower my standards or do important tasks myself.
Asembling an engine is an example. Using a quality timing set that will stay tight means it won't wear out quickly retarding the camshaft which reduces low RPM power and requires constant ignition timing adjustment. To me, it's a real pain to replace a timing set with the engine in the car and I'll gladly spend some extra money on a quality Cloyes "True roller" set to avoid that miserable job.
Honing with a torque plate means the rings will have a truly round bore to seat against and be able to seal much more effectively yielding less oil consumption and better compression. I have a very high mileage rebuild on the engine in my '71 Dodge van that I bought new and it still uses almost no oil.
Balancing the rotating assembly means on the rare occasion when I feel like revving it up and feeling the secondaries open while merging with freeway traffic it will have the smoothness of an electric motor.
Using brass freeze plugs instead of cheap steel ones means I won't ever have to replace a freeze plug in that engine. My restored '36 Chevy pickup still has the brass freeze plugs I put in almost 40 years ago.
Etc.
Is it worth the effort? To me it's well worth it on many levels. To others it may be a complete waste of time and money. Both opinions are perfectly OK in my book.
