Yes, Korat is a pain. Very slow and unforgiving. Just an extension took me 2 trips and 4 hours. TM30 from hotel needed to be for a 7 day stay WTF? So we did it from a vacant block of land....go figure.
yup. It isn't that hard is it? But as Tod says, they don't really give a shit as long as you have your boarding pass and passport on arrival at IO desk.
obviously you are not experienced enough to know that there will be many touch points where you need to verify your status. Like showing your passport many times in the same facility (like an airport) Same when in Covid times we had to show vaccination status many times.