Pocket hole screws vs. dowels, has the shift actually improved anything?

I've been building cabinets for about 18 years now, mostly in the Charlotte area. Ten years ago, almost every face frame I built went together with dowels and a jig I still have in the bottom of a drawer. Today, my shop runs almost exclusively on pocket holes, and I get that it's faster and easier for the guys I train. But I look back at some of the frames I built in 2014 that are still holding up in customers' kitchens, no racking, no loose joints, and I wonder if we traded longevity for convenience. Last month I had to repair a cabinet from a big-box line that used pocket screws, and the MDF around every joint had blown out after six years of normal use. I'm not saying dowels are perfect, they take time and precision, but I also never saw one fail like that. So here's my question for the group, has the industry's move toward pocket screws actually made cabinets better, or did we just speed up the process and call it an upgrade?

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