I would guess that a Samick or Cort guitar today is at least the match of quality of any Strat built in the 60’s.

After all, you can buy all the parts today to build a Model T today, but if you did, you would have a better car than Ford built in 1927. Better steel, tigher tolerances, better rubber, etc.

These factories that build a million guitars per year are probably doing a better job than Fender did in the 60’s.

After all…a Chevy Impala coming off the line today is probably a better all-around car than any Rolls Royce ever built, when it comes to dependability, etc. But you would pay for it what you paid for a Rolls, even though the Rolls leaked all its fluids from the day it was made (and I have some experience with that, having driven one back in the 80’s for one of the owners of the company I worked for then).