Your comment has been my experience. I've been a homeowner in the same house for 30 years. We did a remodel after we first arrived. Gotta say we were naive about many things, plumbing fixtures included. Most of our pipe valves were (as you described) those oval knob jobbies. They are simple compression fixtures that screw in for many turns until the valve closes. These are terrible, awful and very bad. Mine suffered corrosion and froze in place. We recently went through another remodel, and among other things, had all new valves installed. This time we used 1/4 turn brass valves. A simple 90 degree turn and the valve is closed. Much less susceptible to corrosion/rot, etc. They cost more during installation, but in the long run you save time, money and sanity.