the only sensible advice to take in modular, is to buy a bigger case than you think you need, buy fewer modules than you want and grow slowly = there is no need whatsoever to fill the case immediately
-- JimHowell1970
Precisely. For one thing, users invariably want more modules...especially if they've put together one of these mini-builds and come to realize how limiting the damned things are.
I also think that there's an inappropriate "game" mentality going on with a lot of new builds...they all seem to have this unfortunate idea built into them that the builder HAD TO get this right on the first try, otherwise...well, I dunno. If you can build a Minimoog in a 24 hp Pod, perhaps you win all the Interwebz? Whatever the mindset, it's erroneous and dumb, since those of us who live with these devices on a day to day basis KNOW that you'll NEVER nail a build (any size!) on Try #1. Even WE can't do that!
Consider: when Walter Carlos (at the time, now Wendy of course) was working on "SOB", even HIS custom Moog modular wasn't truly "complete". He was still working directly with Bob Moog to get things to be more "instrument-like" with the instrument. And there were a lot of things we now take for granted (like CV latching, for example) that had to be developed over a span of YEARS. So in a sense, there's no such thing as a "completed" modular...even today.