In my professional experience as an automotive painter, the water based paints have been around a while, and they do work, if you follow the guidlines. Robert as far as getting water based finish on the wood, that isnt an issue even with a conventional stuunter, you stil have to seal the wood and open bays before you finish, so a substrate is needed. whether it be dopw or other material, the color coats are what is waterbased, and it by neccessity sits on top of the base materails. I dont know of anyone that puts color coats on bare wood?
These materials that are designed to be enviromentally freindly are typically implemented in california because they are the most fnicky, and yes initially, some of the products have issues to begin with. Do you recall all the cars in the early 90s that had issues with the color coats pealing, yeah well that was a result of not enough UV protection in the clearcoats,, a problem that began with regulation by the EPA and a deadline that was not realistic. But they did sort it out, and Urethanes we have today are the result. Progress has a price, just like with computers,, to be on the leading edge has a price.