Keep this in mind: Perfection is relative.
It's a pool table: a piece of equipment used for recreation... How good does it really need to be? If the balls actually rebound off the cushions, and don't hop, you're half-way there. Anything more is just an added bonus.
Without regard to cost, let's throw out some crazy ideas, some even from this thread-- Let's say that we are going to build the most baddass table that anyone has ever seen, using the following:
- 10" granite surface plate playing surface
- Welded steel frame
- Machined solid steel rails, with k55 cushions
- Cloth mechanically stretched, to get the most uniform installation possible
- All mating parts to be doweled and bolted
- Installed on a 6' thick pad of concrete
- Temperature will be a constant 72 degrees, with relative humidity of 50%
- All machined surfaces will have a 32ra surface finish
- All dimensional tolerances will be +/- .002", (because we don't care about cost)
In theory, all aspects of this table will be absolutely perfect.
Now, here is the bigger question: Even with all of these ridiculous proposals, would anyone shy of an 'A' player really appreciate the differences?
In fact, I would be willing to bet that even professional players would not care to play on a table like this, because it just simply is not what they are used to.
The point is: get a table, play on it, enjoy it, and get used to it. Having a 'perfect' table does nothing more for anyone than simply stroke their ego. Really, it's better to have some variability. It will help you to adapt, when you play on less than 'perfect' conditions.
Having said all of that, there should be some standard to which we all desire for our tables. I think that should be the bigger matter to address. No one wants a poor playing table. Though, you shouldn't have to spend a small fortune to have a table of reasonable expectation.