I’ve never ever put any credibility into those opinions/statements.
”mij Fenders are brilliant” - some are, I’ve played some Japanese fender dogs, and by the same token some amazing and terrible MIM ones. Same goes for USA built.
we once got 8 new 2008 jazz basses in at once and 5 were great, 2 were underwhelming, and I sent one back - just horrific.
I don’t believe that geography has a bearing on wether or not a bass is any good.
That’s before you take into account what each individual player wants.
but if it helps, I owned several Japanese BB’s and some Taiwanese ones at the same time. There was nothing between them, quality wise.
I kept the 414, which is Indonesian. And “lesser”. Sits proudly with a jazz bass and Modulus which if I bought new now I’d have to spend £10,000 to replace between them. Think it’s cost me £150 in total.