It's not a defect in the product or poor QC, just a known risk you take with laminate wood. Wood grain is unpredictable in how well it will absorb the dye. Sometimes it absorbs great and you get deep, dark color, other times it doesn't absorb well and you get a much lighter/fainter color, and sometimes it's a mix of both as each layer of the laminate will vary accordingly. It's no different than not knowing how or what kind of figuring a walnut or maple blank will show once it's been shaped into a stock, or if it will have cavities or other bad spots in it once you start whittling away at it.
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