PET is the industry's newer wrap: a recyclable polyester film with genuinely good matte surfaces. It fixed some of thermofoil's sins — not all of them.
What PET gets right
Modern super-matte PET surfaces feel excellent and resist fingerprints well; as a flat-slab budget product it is a real step above old PVC foil and cheap melamine.
What it cannot do
PET is still a film on a board: edges are banded, profiles are impossible, colour choice ends at the supplier's catalogue, and damage means door replacement. Every one of those is the opposite in lacquer — wrapped edges, any profile, any RAL, sprayable repairs.
Spec guidance
For investor units and minimalist flat-front projects on tight budgets, PET is defensible. For clients who chose a specific colour or any design with a profile, quote lacquer — the difference per door is smaller than most assume under a trade program.