First you said: No, not for what should have been a trivial job.
Then you said: Clearly yes.
Which is it?

What don't you understand? One was the policy that was followed. The
other represents what should have been done, in retrospect.

Piece together some of the other things mentioned in this thread:

Mentioned by whom? Me? No.

- No main shutoff in the house

I never said any such thing. There's a shut off about 10' away next to
the water meter. Open a closet and turn a valve.

- Non-standard installation of the current fixtures

What was non standard about it? No shutoffs? Millions of homes were
built without individual shutoffs under each sink or toilet. It's a
convenience to have them but hardly a necessity. Ditto flexes. That's a
more recent thing.

- A mess above and below the sink

Huh? Where are you getting that from?


- Location of plumbing that makes access time consuming
- etc. etc.

Huh? It's a kitchen with ordinary cabinets and two large doors leading
to the area under the sink. Piping as shown in the photo. I don't see
anything special about the access.

Please confine your comments to my description and the photos not
fictions suggested by others.

In plumbing, as with many other repair jobs, the expectation of a
"trivial job" is a dangerous assumption and should be inquired about
upfront.

Yes, apparently so. But I'll still consider this a trivial job unless
someone makes a convincing argument why it wasn't. Maybe not as trivial
as if there were flexible connections but if it were that easy we
wouldn't have decided to leave it to a pro.