Not sure that I have ever been misled by a manufacturer as to whether they use ply or solid wood, every manufacturer that uses ply states such in their marketing materials. Ply by it's very nature is an engineered composite but that does not mean that all the wood used in the construction is not of one type or another.
Mark
Many of them do state they use ply much of the time, but it's also just as common for manufacturers and retailers to say they sell wood kits. More accurately, they make or sell wood ply kits or kits made with real wood. For example:
"Yamaha ... is the only drum company to offer 100 percent wood kits in four different wood shell materials: Maple, Beech, Birch and Oak."
"The Pacific Drums by DW Maple Snare with Wood Hoops features an all-maple shell with maple hoops and chromeplated brass tube lugs. 5-1/2" x 14"."
"Yamaha has made sound the priority once again with the Beech CustomTM drum series. It features a 100-percent beech wood shell"
"Gretsch's first Birch wood drums, Catalina Birch Series takes the Gretsch Drums philosophy ...."
"Tama wood shell snare drums offer that warm wood sound ...."
"Premium grade hardwoods like maple, walnut, birch and basswood are hand-selected from worldwide sources and are then matched by skilled experts...."
This is a more accurate way of putting it:
"Its scaled-down all-maple 7-ply shells come complete with miniature retro-style 6000 Series hardware and DWSM771 “banana” tom mount. "
Nothing wrong with plywood - some of the best drums ever created are made from it - but I'm just saying manufacturers and sellers should just be consistently up-front about it.