This is a part of the story, for sure.
I was in a company that manufactured things both in the US and in Taiwan, who then sold these products to large distributors, who sold to dealers, who sold to consumers. It was pointed out to me that....BEFORE the product hit the retail customer (in this, case, the end-user musician) it had to be SOLD at least four or five times. Our internal marketing analysis had to "sell" a product to the board, the board negotiated a price from the suppliers, and sold these manufactured products to the distributors, who sold them to the shops, who sold them to the customers.
The point being, at every level, the product had to be viably profitable. The parts manufacturers had to make money, the distributiors had to make money, the dealers had to make money, right on down the line. if ANY of these levels didn;t think it was WORTH it, the product would simple not exist, it would never make it to market.
So, although we are focusing on mainly just our personal, end-user views on whether we think American made Fenders are "worth it", I can assure you that every other level in this process... from FMIC market research to the final users... have determined that they ARE worth it, or ...trust me... they would NOT exist, at least not for long.
