Yea, more of the latter, I’ll explain more clearly when not on mobile but it was primarily the “It’s all in…” phrasing I was disagreeing with.
To be clear - if you play softly, that’s fine.
My issue is when people play with the wispy technique.
If you’re pulling across the string with the pad of your finger, you’re good. You can play loud or soft like that and it will sound good and not be wispy.
The wispy pluck is the one that uses just the fingertip and then pulls away from the bass making a sound, but never getting into the deeper, richer, low fundamentals of the note.
There is a time and place for dynamics … otherwise hit that fat a$$ bass string! 
But that takes time and effort - I want to buy my way to better, dammit…
I believe there are reasons for doing pickup swaps as long as you have a solid reason for doing it and understand what you’re wanting to avoid and what the pickups you’re selecting can do to accomplish it. Don’t just by a “name” because it popular. Some of the very best pickups made aren’t the ones you hear about all the time.
Yeah - that’s why I cringed a little at going from a stock Squier to a Quarter Pounder. There’s nothing wrong with the QP but it is still pretty middle of the road.
It’s certainly got more “juice” and if that’s all someone is looking for it’s gonna give 'em that. Another of tout to be wary of is the “vintage” blah, blah, blah. WTH makes it vintage other than maybe being wound for lower output and possibly lower inductance. While that might be the antithesis if a SD Quarter Pounder it’s not magical.
IME the pickups that have a very different basic voicing to them are the MFD pickups Leo Fender designed for his G&L basses. They have a very different magnetic field and while output is very strong by rolling back on volume they mellow out very well. I’d don’t play Music Man basses but I assume those pickups may have some of the same characteristics but they’re also coupled with a preamp aren’t they whereas most of the G&L MFD pickups are run passively.
One pickup swap many would find handy is noiseless pickups in a Jazz Bass and a noiseless bridge pickup in a PJ Bass. By eliminating single coil hum from imbalanced volume pots it opens up a lot more tonal possibilities. That’s an example of getting something more than someone has with their stock single coil versions.