As long as you are treating the stuff right it should survive a few assembly-disassembly-cycles. Key is of couese to sort the screws, mark the parts with tape, etc.
And while you can get lucky with products in the lowest tier (I have some 15-year-old seating that fits this mold), often you do need to step up to at least the mid-tier to get something that will make it unscathed through moves.
After reading Visual Thinking, I think this is a different brains problem. Some people just aren’t able to object visualize and need written step by step instructions.
We tested this with my girlfriend using a LEGO set. In the time I blazed through 5 bags of Lego, she barely managed to get 1 assembled. Because she just struggles with visual instruction and manipulating objects in her mind.
The opposite happens with sequential written instructions. I struggle to follow simple recipes without pictures and have to re-read the same step multiple times to get what they’re saying, whereas she can blaze through no problem and doesn’t understand why I’m struggling.
While I think IKEA instructions are clear enough, they feel frustrating at times, while Lego feels very satisfying. Maybe it is the full color of the Lego instructions, or that the consequences of a mistake are easier to undo? Or the lego units make it easier to count the distances. Or maybe my love of Lego is stronger than the often chore of assembling furniture, in a pavlovian way? :)
One thing I specifically appreciate about IKEA instructions is the attention to detail in the drawings. With almost every IKEA purchase, at some point I hit a moment where some elements can be mated in several orientations, and there isn't an obvious way to tell which is the correct one. Sometimes it's apparent if you look couple steps ahead, but I found that you can always find a clue somewhere in the drawing of the unclear step. It's usually something like one of the elements having asymmetrically sized or arranged holes, which translates to a difference of 0.25mm to 1mm between some dots on the paper drawing. It's tiny, but it's always there, corresponding precisely to the piece I have in front of me.
Of course, this could've been done better in many ways, but at least they care about precision of their drawings. Of companies in this space I had experience with, no one else does.
And lastly, have a 90° gage to make sure all corners have right angles. This is very crucial. Sometimes floors are uneven and trick you into assembling the furniture askewed