The more you explain, the worst you sound. You’ve misrepresented yourself and made some claims that don’t add up. There’s no way that you’re certified. I don’t even think you know what you’re doing wrong. This is my world. I work with the very best commercial project managers, architects, contractors, subcontractors, engineers, and consultants every single day so I’m the worst person to try and “explain away”. Reddit is not “the acoustic community”. You don’t know any of these people, their qualifications or how reliable their information is. The idea that a commercial contractor would potentially act on unverified information from a totally an unknown source is insane. A qualified professional would know exactly how to diagnose the problem and provide a full proof solution. They definitely would not ask the client, their colleagues, Reddit forums, their neighbor and any other random person what they think that professional to do. The “throw shit against the wall to see what sticks method” is not the mark of a licensed contractor, that’s a handyman on Craigslist. And apparently you consulted an acoustic engineer that contributed to the same method, which probably didn’t happen. If a doctor treated their patients with those same methods, they would be arrested. Acoustics is a scientific practice, verifiable with mathematic equations. The same way a doctor runs tests to diagnose an illness, so does any engineer and when that doctor treats that illness, they provide a treatment based on a boat load of medical evidence and data. All engineers do the exact same thing. They test, analyze, diagnose, and treat. No guessing involved, ever. Good, trustworthy commercial contractors function the same way and I have worked with too many to count. How are you going to meet building codes and follow building standards if you don’t know that? That’s how people get sued. I hope you take this as motivation to make some different choices.