not need necessarily a double(plus)-layered board to work flawlessly

my point exactly
"not need necessarily" to maybe work flawlessly
"need necessarily" to absolutely, guaranteed work flawlessly

The irony is that those very skilled layout people that could get by with fewer layers rarely do, whereas any bungling amateur that has no idea of even the most basic rules for good PCB layout will always use fewer layers.

In one way it saddens me that the 'beginners' today do not have the 'advantage' we had of parts being so slow that a wire was a wire. I also can see todays 'beginners' ending up working everything under a microscope, my old eyes, sometimes, can hardly find the part, the are soooooooo small.

Erik