Many areas will have relaxed codes for cabins that are only used part-time. The hard thing is that all this stuff is state-by-state and locality-by-locality, so you have to dig to find lax areas. Louisiana is particularly open for residential construction IIRC.

I'm not sure where you are located but in Northern New England this is very untrue. Maine, New Hampsire, and Vermont all have a LARGE number of diy log cabins built. I've stayed in several and I'm in the early planning of building a house (not log cabin, it's a long house with builtin green house/barn sections similar to the long house on the Apple TV show home). There are many places in the US that allow you to DIY your own home, though the majority are very rural which is a MASSIVE benefit IMO.

Very true. Where I live you need a building permit and an certified engineer to sign off plans for something as basic as a pergola.

land of the free.....:/

Free is subjective, and since there are variations of the regulations by municipality, you can choose from the spectrum of lax laws + dangerous to strict laws + safe. Your preferred location, however, may not align with your preferred regulations. Or you can do like we do here in Berkeley and build whatever you want because your neighbors also have illegal additions so they're not gonna squeal.

It's one of those things of life.

"Land of the free" doesn't mean the land is free of dickheads or immoral people who endanger others in their attempts to "get ahead".

And so laws are born...

Whether there are too many is totally a question though.