From what little I know about this I regard it as a design problem,
but I think that way (-: i.e. if it can't be produced simply and
consistently
then it wasn't designed for manufacturability (horrid word, but production
engineers use it a lot).

Blind gluing without the ability to inspect guarantees problems like this.

In my mind this is a poor design and the fact Malibu has decided to adopt a
procedure that is known to have problems and hasn't been able to correct it
in over 7 years of production is a bad choice. But they are building to a
lower price point and many people prefer to enjoy the savings inherent in
the processes that Malibu uses. Most boats won't have this problem.