I understand what you are saying, but the designer of the quilt doesn't know that your fabrics are going to be 43" of usable fabric. As Dunster said, most fabrics don't have that usable width. The designer had to plan for all fabrics, most of which would be narrower and probably added a bit so you would be sure to have enough. I appreciate that designers do that rather than having a situation where I bought just what the pattern called for and was short. I always buy extra and that goes in my stash for other projects. I think if you want to buy exactly what is needed, you'd have to do the math yourself. And as far as the vendors wanting to only sell 1/2 yards, I guess that's their choice. There are lots of quilt shops around. The local ones here will sell in 1/4 and even 1/8 yards.

I don't buy exact yardage. If the pattern pictures shows three fabrics in a block then I buy 2 - 3 yards of each fabric. More if one is the same border. It's much easier and I always have enough or some left over. I don't think I've ever bought less then one yard of any fabric from the bolt. I prefer patterns that use pre cuts though.

I think pattern makers are doomed no matter what they do. I think the standard now for quilting fabric is 42 inches. But there is a lot of variation in that. Some 42-inch fabrics have wider selvages and when you trim them, you may have less then 40 inches of useable fabric, some are very generous, I actually have gotten some fabrics that are 45 inches wide with narrow selvages which gives me at least in one case, 44 inches of useable fabric. Some folks will prewash, some folks will not, and shrinkage varies among fabrics. I had one pattern that called for fat quarters, I decided to pre-wash, yikes 2-3 of them were not fat quarters anymore after washing and I had to add from my stash. And then there is the quilt shops, in my area, one gives you exactly what you want, no more, no less, one will always cut a few extra inches to give you fabric to straighten the edges (I love that shop, go there first when looking for something). I myself always buy a bit more as my ruler has been known to slip or even, I know this is a shocker, I might actually read my ruler wrong OOPS!
Anyway, folks get mad if they don't have enough, and they get mad if they had too much. I always figure the scraps will come in handy for something or at least will find a good home with a teacher or scout leader or fellow quilter who loves scrap quilts.

I totally agree!

That's exactly how I feel!

I'd be comfortable with getting 34" in cuts out of a yard of fabric. Four squares down by four across would yield 16 squares. Another option would be to add another fabric from the collection, for insurance. Then you're only out that one extra cut.

Yes, things have changed in the last few years. I've been forced to round up to the next yard to buy a fabric online. Thankfully they now allow for half yard increments.

The problem is the wording of the amount of fabric and I've seen this in alot of instructions. Pattern says " for throw I needed 2 1/8 -2 1/4 yds total of six different fabrics". The key is a total of 6 different fabrics should equal 2 1/8 - 2 1/4 yds. of fabric, not 2 1/8 - 2 1/4 of each fabric. When you first read instructions it is easy to misread and think you need more fabric than is necessary. I know because I've made the same mistake and ordered way too much fabric.

I also read it as needing 12-3/4 to 13-1/2 yards total.

Another time where experience would indicate to me if that was a reasonable amount of fabric or not. If it read as unreasonable, then I (maybe) would have thought to read the requirements again.

Being a "newbie" can be so frustrating. However - mistakes are great teachers!