You have your order backwards - people don't acquire these boards to play as much as they to do to look at (well, it's both, but assigning a priority would be silly). The "straighter" the grain, the more valuable the board. Also, the bigger the tree. They love the look and sound (as the pieces are placed) of a large hunk of tree. You could probably "fake" it with a bookmatch around a solid core (good luck getting the endgrain right, but you could come close), but it wouldn't be the same. Which is part of the answer. The rest is "it's traditional". There are many things in the west that are equally silly and not half as pretty.
The specific species of wood that they make these out of are protected now due to over harvesting. Only naturally fallen trees are harvested for use. These trees are pretty much only used for this purpose these days.
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u/[deleted] Jan 09 '23
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