2 years ago I had a commercial violin coming in the shop which needed a raise pitch.
Opening the upper bouts of the body turned out to be a nightmare because instead of animal glue some synthetic very resistant bond was used in the factory.
When I glued the top back on the edge this made me think, do we really need glue on the top block in the area which is under the fingerboard?
At times it can be very hard to get an opening knife through this area and then no matter how patiently you try to do it the surface looks 'scattered' after opening.
So I didn't apply glue on the cheap violin I the red zone. When it came back last week for a minor readjustment of the pitch, I could slice it open in 5 minutes put a shaving at the neck heel and close it again, all in less than 30 minutes, mostly because I didn't have to work the opening blade through the entire surface of the top block.
Do we really need glue there?