Regarding welding everything, no real downside. The problem is that I see, and another member has already mentioned increasing the oem spot welds from mid 30's to over a hundred, the spot welds are structurally located better then edge welding, IMO. And the problem with spot welding 40+ years later, is getting reasonably clean metal inside for quality spot welds. Edge welding has this problem to a lesser degree. Doing both of course is also a solution.
Reality check, that half the population is smarter then 50% of the people and it's a constantly contested fact.
