They are, many of them, in and of themselves quite distinctive and attractive small craft. It's been about 25 years now since 1 first fell under the spell of a Swampscott dory. This doesn't seem a long time to me but it is a long enough time for circumstances to have changed, and several developments have seriously impacted on the traditional small boat building scene in just this short quarter century. Cost is one. Labor intensive traditional building, at the much higher wage scales required for the builder to support himself and his family today, and the much higher cost of ever harder to find good natural wood, have driven traditionally built small boat prices beyond affordable levels for all but the well to do.
Utility is another.
As access to the water grows increasingly difficult, most small boats have to be kept on trailers, spending but a small part of their time in the water. The boats never get to swell up and stop leaking. So sealed up seams become necessary. Plywood, glued up wood veneers, lends itself quite nicely to glued up construction. Time, or the lack thereof, impacts adversely on the traditional ways.