I think you are conflating the demise of the American car, "just good enough for business" and the fetishization of over tolerancing. All of those things are much more complex than "a tradition" of quality. I would assert that Japanese quality is a rather new thing and that it ebbs and flows with the time and the needs.
By your measure, the Zero was a low quality plane, but served the MBAs in the Japanese military well for meeting its objectives. The AK47, one of the most successful machines in the world has extremely sloppy tolerances and it is exactly those lenient tolerances that enabled its success.
We always have to be cognizant of economics, over building, polishing or engineering a system is a waste. Calling it a craft doesn't make it any more acceptable. Proing-up and being good at what you do doesn't mean you need to put burnished wood knobs on your software.
As far as AK-47 goes I think you are conflating two different engineering concepts, perhaps because you are not an engineer. One concept is that of "clearance" as a feature for the designed functionality of a product vs loose tolerance as a result of sloppiness.
I think, you think tolerance means fits that rattle, thats not what it means in engineering. Loose tolerance may just as likely lead to interference fits.
Forget AK-47, there are more egregious examples, consider the Blackbird, SR-71 one of the fastest military aircrafts to have graced the skies, a marvel of engineering: it had just wide gaps between the parts of its metallic skin, at the joints. Now going by your logic one might think SR71 became successful because of loose tolerance and "good enough". It was quite the opposite, the clearances were deliberate and necessary for its success. They were there to account for thermal expansion. For the AK it was necessary for rough use and low to zero maintenance.
In fact not having clearance for SR71 or the AK would have constituted intellectual sloppiness: going with cookie cutter decisions and not optimizing the product for the use case. What looks sloppy to an amateur might actually be the result of perfection by an expert.
May I recommend Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance to you.
Further, I think you are being obtuse and defensive and railing against something I have not said. I am not quite sure why. I have never claimed all products need to be finished to the point of "burnished wood knobs". My commentary was on personal growth as an engineer. If it doesn't bother you somewhere to turn in a product that you know you could improve with little effort, you are not going to be a quality engineer, and will not be able to produce a quality product when one such is desired. I am categorically not saying that each item that you deliver has to be the epitome of some arbitrary quality standard.
The cultural tradition that I was talking about was not about adding cost to the product by unnecessary finish. Often people do not finish the product even when it would not have taken much effort. This is rationalized with the logic that the finish would have little immediate value, because it is already good enough for the job, but far from "good". The other reason is sometimes the craftsman just does not have the skill and "good enough" is a good argument to take cover under.
By your measure, the Zero was a low quality plane, but served the MBAs in the Japanese military well for meeting its objectives. The AK47, one of the most successful machines in the world has extremely sloppy tolerances and it is exactly those lenient tolerances that enabled its success.
We always have to be cognizant of economics, over building, polishing or engineering a system is a waste. Calling it a craft doesn't make it any more acceptable. Proing-up and being good at what you do doesn't mean you need to put burnished wood knobs on your software.