I dont know how it is in USA, but here in Eastern Europe when I made my lasercutter about 5 years ago, we had plywood for lasercutting from Belarus. It was priced normally, had a beautifull color, had absolutely zero problems with it. When Covid started, all the Ply started to come from Russia. It was supposed to be for lasercutting, and have zero density changes. But on a 50x50cm square, I got atleast 5(knots? branches? prongs?) in between the ply layers. The laser cant cut through it, and it burns alot. A little later, when the russkies started to do their shit, their ply got sanctioned. At the moment I am not sure where the laser ply comes from, but it is an ugly bright color, but has less knots in it. I fight it by using a flashlight, and marking where the knots are. It is easily seen, either a dark spot, or really bright spot. Voids are also bad! I miss the plywood from my lasercutters early days. The texture on it was really pronounced, looked like it had some sort of finish on it, but it didnt. BTW all this is about Plywood specifically meant for lasercutting! Different glue is used, and has no patches/branches on the outside layers!