How does the economy & housing market affect home appraisals?

When the housing industry & economy is as poor as it is now, does it have an effect on home appraisals? We remodeled our entire home and were hoping to get back close to what we had invested. However, the appraisal came back much lower than we expected. Is this because of the current housing industry and the economy?

Appraisers are tea leave readers. A house has no practical value, unless somebody wants to pay for it.
Until 1 year ago, appraisers just set in the appraised amount as the sales price or asking price, whatever was wanted.
All that comp stuff they do is useless unscientific magic.
They take the comps from the MLS and Realist , which are so full of BS, it’s funny.
Today, they have directions from the lenders to go as low as possible with their estimates. But in a reality, your house has no value anyway, since there are no buyers.