Except in rare cases with specialty products, plywood edges must be somehow covered to hide their flaws and protect them from damage to which they are highly susceptible. The finish plies of hardwood plywood are usually so thin they cannot be measured with a typical ruler - clearly less than 1/16". If that thin ply is nicked or slightly peeled back the structural layers of the ply are revealed which are normally of different species and hence coloration and grain leaving a defect nearly impossible to repair satisfactorily.
These delicate edges are most often covered using 'edge banding' which is usually another thin piece of veneer. This may be thicker than the finish face veneer but still subject to the same damage and difficulty of repair. I have used several methods of edging plywood with solid wood, which solved the issue of edge vulnerability but none of these were totally satisfactory or really cost effective.
In my opinion the only truly satisfactory uses of plywood are those that fully wrap the exposed plies such as door panels that are set into a groove in the door frame. Here the one true advantage of plywood - its dimensional stability is an improvement over solid wood panels that must be allowed space to expand and contract. Ironically this is the real purpose of frame and panel construction - to allow for that expansion and contraction while producing an overall item, such as a door, that is more dimensionally stable. So, the plywood advantage is really only evident as less cost in this instance.
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