Cookie cutter produce

While preserving our harvest of leeks this morning, I was pondering the nature of modern recipe books. When fruits and vegetables are listed in the ingredients of most recipes, in most recipe book, they simple just list a number - not a weight. But anyone who has grown their own fruit or veggies know that they can come in a variety of sizes...For example leeks (seeing as that is what I was dealing with at the time), the only way I've seen leeks listed in a recipe is by number eg. 2 leeks, finely chopped. However you can have tall leeks, short leeks, fat leeks, skinny leeks so that the amount of chopped leek you have could vary greatly. Which got me thinking...have modern recipe writers succumb to the supermarket 'cookie cutter' approach to fruit and veggies, where they demand they are produced to look all the same size, colour and shape. Or are they just lazy and can't be bothered working out more specifically how much of a fruit or veggies is required (by working out a weight).

Obviously I realise that recipes should be used a guide and there is room in any recipe to make adjustments and variations based on personal preferences. But for those who are culinarily challenged and like to be able to follow a step by step recipe and have the finished product look the same as the picture, a more specific measure would be helpful/reduce stress.