PVC plumbing fittings come in 22.5 degree variations between 0 and 180, just as an aside. It's what I use for most gardening projects. It lasts longer than thin wall conduit would, and is much less expensive than the thick wall steel pipe.
While sometimes I would make the argument that the lack of inventory is why people go online instead, in this case I think that is wrong. Their target market is home owners doing plumbing, and plumbing rarely needs those odd connectors. Frankly if you have small PVC/cPVC water pipes (as opposed to larger drain pipes) I would replace them with PEX where practical, and cut them off where not and install a PEX adapter. (I'd also do that for copper or iron pipes - copper because it might have lead solder but if it doesn't you are good for a while; iron because it hasn't been common in so long that anything you see is probably past expected lifespan)
Said wizard stores sometimes have a handwritten sign taped up on the wall behind the counter dating back to the Carter administration that reads "Those in the trade will be served first"[0].
Your reward for being a wizard is having competent help at the store, and the fittings haven't been randomly distributed among the bins by a million prior muggles.
Electrician wizards similarly work with electrical supply stores, not Home Depot if they can avoid it. Carpenter wizards cross over a little more, but they generally prefer to work with lumber yards that deliver[1] and have halfway decent lumber[2].
[0] Yes, literally.
[1] I believe the box stores do to, but they charge handsomely because they don't really want to.
[2] 2x3's are crap everywhere, but the quality on anything bigger goes up immensely at a real lumberyard.
This was once the case, but I've not found it to be true in recent history (in NorCal anyway). Lumberyards are getting 2x4/6/8 stock in roughly the same quality as the big box stores, and the only difference appears to be service and turnover rate.
Covid's effects on the lumber supply chain are lasting - many sawyers and mills have closed, and what's left is produced to meet a price point.
For everyone else, there’s McMaster Carr.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10779931/#:~:te....
Agreed though -- PVC pipe (the white stuff) does very poorly with exposure to UV light. The beige CPVC stuff is worse. The black PVC (ABS?) is supposed to be better, but less available in small gauges. And the grey plastic stuff used for electrical conduit is also supposedly UV-safe, but is far less structurally rigid than any of the others, or of course galvanized EMT. Sometimes that flexibility is a virtue, but usually not.
To my understanding, this is primarily an aesthetic issue. PVC pipes have been tested over years of UV exposure and remain structurally sound. This is a topic that comes up periodically on the pool forums since it is pretty common to have some amount of exposed PVC pipes above ground.
There may be different formulations (in the same color?) that are more UV-resistant though.
Pool piping is a good example, though I have usually seen them covered for UV protection.