You really should not let it bother you so much, we have a lot of high dollar shops doing the old vettes with just epoxy, started a number of years ago and how often do you hear of a vette shop that swears you should only use a gel-coat?
I had a call on the tech line from a Sherwin Williams rep--YES a company paint rep wanting to buy Universal for his Mustang show car. (his first attempt) I listened real close for a little bit and said, why would you care about using a quality clear when you have acid etched the bare metal and used a base and primer never seen in the show world before?
He said acid primer is great stuff and I said assuming it is, what you going to sell in January when its illegal?
I left it with use the S&W clear as the car deserves it.
Poor James heard the conversation and was having a heart attack, as he did not know who I was talking to. If you can't have some fun, why come to work?