Doesn't sound too lazy man to me. Poly will give a reasonably hard finish and with a wet sand and finishing with the 0000 steel wool, it will be smooth to the touch. I like shellac, not near as hard as a poly, but will render a fine finish. The other thing about shellac is it plays well with other finishes. Poly is multiple individual layers, where shellac is multiple layers melding into one. I struggled with tung oil at first, but when done right it can give a hard smooth finish. One doesn't fit all, it all boils down to what you what/need from your finish. Once again nice work.
t