There is a difference say in a Fender made in Mexico/Korea/... than one made in the USA.
and likewise.. in the 90's especially there was a difference between Japanese, Korean and Indonesian Ibanez..
Japan being the 'home nation' was [as you'd expect I guess] where the better intruments were perceived to have been made...
I have played many Strats [I own a USA model myself]...
thing is... I played a Mex one once which seemed to me to be everything you'd expect from a Strat..
build quality was ok.. tone was.. well.. Straty.. lol..
before I bought my Strat I must have tried out more than 10.. maybe even 15..
this was before the Mex ones...
most were ok.. a few of them were real dogs.. and two really stood out.. one of which I fell absolutely head over heels for..
I've got a Korean made early 90's RG470 in my lil' harem..
and it punches way above it's weight.. it's just stunning.. one of the best guitars I've ever played..
and in contrast.. a few years back I got a 7-string made for me by a custom shop in the USA..
it was an absolute pig.. I seriously got my fingers burned on that one..
I had to have a new neck made for it by another custom builder..
EDIT: so there you go.. even within my own collection have two US made guitars at opposite ends of the spectrum..
the one that's supposed to be "pretty good" is utterly jaw dropping,
and the one that is supposed to be jaw dropping and cost 3 times as much was [until the new neck] a total crock..
all I'm trying to say is [maybe quite poorly] that "made in <country>" does not have to mean good / bad / anything else..
and to use my Strat finding experiences.. even same make / same model is not a dead cert either..
you just try stuff out, irrespective of nationality, make model..
it either works great or it don't..
so it's seriously worth being very open minded about all this..