Pre-approval, conditional approval, clear to close, and funding are all different stages of a mortgage loan, and all need to be met at different points.
brokers, lenders, title agents, and realtors all interact with buyers and sellers and they all do variably good or bad jobs of explaining and preparing them about these things and what will need to be met, what could go wrong, and what to do about it.
final VOE is common, but usually the buyer doesn’t get told about it. With small employers that can be an issue, to use the example above. Maybe pulling a final credit report to verify no new debt obligations is another one- most buyers are warned about this at the beginning of the process.
basically, the industry expects buyers and sellers to be flexible with these things and the buyer/seller facing folks use their salesmanship to keep them on the hook. The other choice would be to start over. It’s also why cash offers for somewhat less money are really attractive options. No loan underwriting, no money sourcing, just a title review and wire transfer.