It's also possible to get a bit more creative. You can clip items inside others, this way you can for example have your basic wooden wall which hides an iron cage completely inside of it. It requires rebuilding the original piece, but I would consider it an upgrade of sorts even with all the extra clicking.

You won't ever lose materials used for building unless there's some sort of fuel involved (like in case braziers), so you can rebuild something as many times as you like.