Jafox; A good statement. The best way to explain my observations re audio, is actually by comparing it to a TV watching experience.
When the TV color balance is very slightly to the green side of neutral, viewing is vaguely unpleasant or even irritating, but with a slight turn of the color balance control, the viewing experience can be greatly improved, even to the point of now being very pleasant. So, in an absolute sence, the change was very small, but improvement in the level of enjoyment was quite significant, and some may even say great (my wife would say great).
When I added the maple boards, the improvement in music quality/character, in any absolute sense, was small, but the (subjective) improvement in listening pleasure or enjoyment was definitey worthwhile and fairly significant to me. Over the years I've developed what I think are very good "critical listening skills"-- and yes, sometimes this can be a curse;>)
As construction quality improves, potential performance improves, but so do the affects of negative outside influences such as poor AC supply, sensitivity to excess vibration, room acoustics, poor outlets (read .79 cents) and other associated AC conditions. Good manufacturers do their best to optimize their components musicality, but they cannot account for ALL conditions under which their equipment will be used. You can put $100K equipment in a cube shaped room and realize only poor performance.
Finally I would say that not all tweaks work, and I've rejected many either because their was no improvement or they actually made things worse. Cheers. Craig