Michael, like you I have built a lot of furniture and other wood projects.  Wood will move the most across the grain not length wise.  Some of the Winchester fancy stocks have cracked at the wrist because there was too much of the fancy and not enough of the straight grain. When you build furniture you sometimes have to allow for movement.  If not it will crack.  I see this a lot with the lids on cased Colts.  In the late 1890’s and early 1900’s it was common to see quarter sawn wood.  This cut aligns the wood in a different orientation and makes it much more stable.

Nowadays if I were to do some decking I would use some of the composite wood/plastic. This is really stable material and looks like wood.