Where are my manners! Welcome to Canreef, BTW.
I don't think anyone is really comparing the slate of LFS's to the slate of MO outfits. Yeah, a lot of them are probably disappointing to see for real. That's not really the issue. Any criticism I might level against a LFS myself personally is something I am equally apt to level against a MO supplier because I apply the same criteria to both categories. What constitutes a "positive customer experience" versus a "negative" one has nothing to do with whether I drove to the store itself, or whether something arrived on a plane or in the mail. There are MO outfits that has a spit-polish finish and others that seem plain amateurish in comparisons but neither one is immune to a purchase leaving a customer feeling he/she was serviced well, or not well, whatever the case may be.
I sitll stand by my own comments I made earlier about the customer needing to exercise common sense and good judgment. I think, however, that when one don't have the experience level yet to make those good decisions, that it is not an open invitation to surface some kind of predatory instinct and "go for the kill." Yes, business is in business to make money. But I think the onus has to be on the retailer, still, at some level, to ensure customer success is one their goals too. It is not in the vendors best interests to see a customer fail. Ok, so some customers don't listen, and you can't please everybody all the time and yadda yadda yadda. So there are no "100%" answers. But as far as "0% to 99%" goes, there is the implication that things can usually be made better, or made worse, and I think attitude can count for part of how much and in what direction.