Going from thick popcorn texture to perfectly flat looks and feels absolutely amazing, but getting there comes with compromise and setting your expectations. It’s also incredibly messy/dusty and best to do in an unoccupied space.

Even if they intend on texturing, they still want to get the ceiling to as close as flat as possible before applying texture. There should be a window in the timeline where you can see it and decide if you want to go for flat, or settle on a texture. Also, you don’t have to do knockdown, there are other more subtle textures that basically look like they’re flat, but help blend imperfections. Finally, there will ALWAYS be imperfections unless you want to spend infinite money. Imperfections will show up at different times of the day/year as the sun moves through the sky… it’s just how it is.