This is the same thing that happens with furniture. You measure the spot, check the listing photos, everything looks fine, then the couch shows up and there is some weird leg or a molding strip you did not account for. Cases from that era are the worst for it too because the photos never show the inside of the front panel where all the hidden junk lives. That angled brace sounds like it was holding the whole frame together, so once you cut it you lost the shape and the panel was never going to sit right again. Nothing on Marketplace ever shows the one detail that ruins the whole plan, and the seller probably knew it too. At least a media server is a fair end for it. Mine would have already been in the trash.

That line about being the only layer keeping your core dry for 6 miles hit home for me. I had almost the same thing happen on a trip in the Smokies, pulled out a $7 emergency poncho from a gas station bin while everyone else was messing with fancy shells, and mine was the one that actually held up when the sky opened up. The funny part is the expensive jackets got soaked through at the seams while my trash bag with arm holes just kept doing its job. I still carry one in the bottom of my pack on every trip now, takes up no room and weighs nothing. Sometimes the cheap stuff just works when it counts.