It's a real problem. It takes years of being around home and lots of reading to develop an understanding of some of the problems. It's better to find people that already know this stuff and pay them to do the job right - but such people are becoming very rare these days.
Even conctractors who do know how to do a sound job find that there is no market for it, and end up doing it "quick and dirty".
Home inspectors walk a fine line. Even if they do know that they are looking at what could be a serious problem, they don't always mention it. They have to be political, too. And neither do they have X-ray vision.
I have nothing but contempt for Architects. They learn how to make "pretty" houses, but know absolutely nothing about the systems inside, or construction methods. They don't leave room in their cutsey structures for heating ducts, electrical equipment, or access to the HVAC system. All that stuff is just an afterthought to them.
The low flow in your kitchen could be due to one of the new "AlGore" faucets, which have flow restrictors in them. I accidentally bought one of those, and I can read a chapter in a book while waiting for a spagetti pot to fill up.
For some reason, I had to read this 3 times. I kept seeing "low floor" and was wondering what Al Gore had to do with that.
"I invented the 'low floor'."
The problem for those of us who don't know this stuff is how to pick the right inspector / builder. There are dozens of examples in this thread of conflicting advice from people who claim to know what they're talking about. Tyvec is the problem. Tyvec is good. Insulation causes the mold problem. Insulation prevents it. Insulation has no effect either way. Metal studs are the problem because they don't retain water. They are the solution because they don't retain water. Stucco causes it. Stucco doesn't.
When I bought my two houses, I hired an independent inspector because I'm pretty ignorant about construction. Things I thought would be problems weren't anything to be concerned about. Stuff I wouldn't have thought twice about were big issues to my inspector. Best money I ever spent.
But what I'm hearing from this thread is you need to get an inspector/builder who knows the answers to these issues, but no one seems to agree on what the correct answer is.