Sometimes life is better when you just accept that something is different but not necessarily worse.

Natural gas fireplaces aren't real wood-burning, and I can tell, but I just appreciate that they are way cleaner.

Now, furniture is a different story. Wood is much better than the engineered crap. Try lifting a modern piece that looks like wood and maybe has a thin layer of wood (very heavy and easy to damage) and then try lifting something made of real wood (light and strong).