I assume anyone making fun of 2x4 and drywall construction has no experience in construction or land development. The complaints all have to do with cheap materials, and/or shoddy construction if walls aren't straight. But done right with good insulation and quality materials, I would take it over any other type.
It's nice and easy to modify and repair also. Unfortunately most of the money people use to buy goes into the price of the land, leaving little extra for a quality build.
The complaints all have to do with cheap materials, and/or shoddy construction if walls aren't straight.
That's right. The parent was complaining about homes built from sticks and cardboard, and indeed, one can actually use foil-faced cardboard for sheathing the shear walls (one product name is ThermoPly, there are others). You attach these to walls you build 24" O, slap 3/8" drywall inside, put vinyl siding, make absolutely no effort whatsoever to air-seal anything, save on gluing subfloor to joists (nobody will mind the squeaking), and the list can go on and on. House built like that will be utter garbage, will be expensive and uncomfortable to live in, and if it doesn't collapse due to water-damage induced rot, it's only because of high robustness of wood-frame construction.
However, you don't have to build this way! You can build a solid, sturdy, well-insulated, well-ventilated, soundproof, rigid and long-lasting house using wood-frame construction. It will just cost more. The great thing about wood-frame construction is that you can actually make these kind of decisions, and you can pick and choose parts which you care about, and the ones the quality of which you can give up on. Moreover, it's pretty easy to upgrade things later on, easy to fix if something breaks, and easy to build additions to.
I grew up in a country where lumber was too expensive to use it for construction, so everything was made from concrete (typically using CMUs). I used to think that this is a way to go, but over time I really became converted to American-style wood frame construction.
It's nice and easy to modify and repair also. Unfortunately most of the money people use to buy goes into the price of the land, leaving little extra for a quality build.