Wait, 15 minutes every single trip? That would've broken me after week one.

What was your clamping setup looking like when those dowels let go? If the face panel was flexing even a little during glue-up, that alone could cause the alignment to shift and blow out the holes. I have had way better luck with biscuits on thin plywood because they let the panel float a bit, but honestly the bigger fix for me was adding a caul or a backer board so the pressure is even across the whole joint. How thick was the plywood, and were you using a dowel jig or something self centering? Also worth asking, was the blowout happening on the drill side or the glue side?

$200 buys a lot of analog scales, just saying.