Makes perfect sense to me, man.
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I agree with you, especially when you are looking at intermediate to pro basses. I don’t think Yamaha checked my BB434 before they sent it out, it had several uneven frets making it impossible to lower the action. Maybe the department tasked with this was closed that day?
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I guess some may slip through the cracks. 
Depending on how soon you discovered the uneven frets after purchase, I am sure Yamaha could have done something to help you out.
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The big benefit of the Plek is it’s ability to map the tensioned neck onto the intentioned neck which is virtually impossible to do by hand. The question though is if it really matters and if that level of accuracy isn’t beyond what will change with variations in temperature and humidity. It’s definitely a great tool like any CNC and CMM.
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Absolutely, technically it comes at the price of a set of strings but ever since the first bass I haven’t yet to replace the strings. I like it I wish It’s cheap enough, I’d get one for myself. Lol.
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I’m surprised all companies don’t just do this for all production instruments because it has got to be cheaper than doing it by hand, even with cheap labor. One time incidental cost for the machine and then it would process thousands of instruments. The cost would amortize to very little per instrument.
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Could not agree more.
I do not know exactly what Yamaha does for their quality assurance but I have always thought of their products as #1 and have never had any issues with quality. I do own several thousand dollars of their Guitars and Basses so I am speaking from experience going back to 1972. 
When I started to learn Bass at the beginning of 2021 the first thing I did was check out the Yamaha line. I found a Bass in the colour and price range I wanted and that was the start of the Bass journey.
All was, and still is, good and the journey continues.
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A Plek machine costs something like $250,000, plus ongoing training, software updates/upgrades, and maintenance.
wOnT sOmEoNe ThInK oF tHe InVeStOrS?? 
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2.7 million guitars were sold in the US in 2020 (latest figures I could find). I think they have enough volume to amortize the cost of a PLEK machine, especially the big companies. Like Fender. You see basses like the Fender Player Plus and Charvel with rolled fret edges, and Sire. How much you want to bet they’re plek’ed?
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Cool. Yeah, I figured that this had to be common at large scale manufacturers.
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Ha, I guess that explains the poor fret job on my Indonesian Yamaha
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I was being facetious and poking fun at corporate america, mainly (for funsies, I looked to see if Fender was public or private; it’s private. But I did not know that ‘Leo Fender’ was god-damned Clarence Leonidas Fender 
)
unrelated to responding to you, the place near me that has a Plek machine “starts at $225” and didn’t go into details beyond that.
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Really? The three I have owned have been great. My Taiwan-made Yamaha even better.
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Cool, glad to know Shimamura is in there - they aren’t a manufacturer, they are a major retail and used instrument chain. Would be a good place to go for service like that.
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I have six basses, and it is the only one I ever sent to a luthier because I couldn’t adjust the buzz out and maintain reasonable action. Should have sent it back to Sweetwater, but they had no replacements at the time (they still don’t!), and instead it was rectified with a hammer and file 
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Ahh, bummer. I generally run my action really low and haven’t had issue on mine. Bad apples do get through I guess, though. I’d describe the frets on my TRBX304 as good, TRBX604 as great, BB734A as nearly perfect and SBV-550 as perfect. The only issues at all with the 604 and 734A were that you could feel the frets a bit more than expected on the edge. Not fret sprout, and not sharp, but not as smooth as my SBV-550. Still much better than most brands though.
I tried a new Epiphone Les Paul that managed to have fret sprout through a binding. Now that’s impressive.
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THAT is massive shrinkage.
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