A couple of points to resist or make.
How the PLEK is deployed is of course of value when evaluating it's work. It's been my impression that the lousy fret work that we see too from G*bson is likely because the instruments spend minimal time on the machine. I say this because I see the tool paths.... the lines milled in the frets. Similar to scratches they represent not enough passes to improve the overall finish of the frets. Do this with the business part of the procedure, milling the tops to precision levelness INCLUDING accounting for final fit and finish and it's likely that some manufacturers are simply speeding things through and that the machines are capable of much better.
By the way errors in fret work are easily detected and measured once we define errors over what distance or span. It is very possible to design a process to measure and compare the results of a skilled Luthier vs. a PLEK machine. This is what we have been wanting to do too for around 6 years now with no takers.... We did score one interested party who agrees with our assertion that we can do better than a PLEK (he can too) but he would not agree to let us publish our results.
Steve we do say that a PLEK is only as skilled as the operator but there are other limitations. The code is not open source and after talking with PLEK experts that have more than one of them they have told us that the code does not offer functionality for some of those "Nuance" things that Chris very rightly brought up. Remember Steve when we are applying finger top pressure, the touch if you will, to correct a specific anomaly of a specific instrument while either leveling the board or final leveling fret tops? That's nuance and that's often important with fretwork.
If you have an ax that has a neck that responds different under string tension than say at least for the fret work we human bags of mostly water... can observe this, correct for it with the "touch" and that this is not easily done with a PLEK.
Don great comments and it may be a reach to say that a machine will "never" be capable of exceeding hand work. But it's not a reach these days to say that. From polishing multi-million dollar lenses for Hubble to some of the smallest tolerance machining ever done the skilled craftsman is still relied on to do the details. I can have a robot operate on me but I would much rather sue and punch a human being when they botch the job.....
As someone who learned to program back in the day in Fortran 77, COBOL, Basic, Pascal, MAD (proprietary, stands for Michigan Algorithm Decoder) and several other computer languages on the processor side the only thing a PLEK has over we humans is it won't get tired doing multiple iterations of the same math and it's way faster. We humans are still capable of the same precision.
We humans can also do the entire job including discuss options with the client, address any issues that may result after the work is done, we are not dependent on anyone else to turn us on, strap the stinkin ax on our bench, or motivate us to do well, pay the electric bill, pay PLEK, get updates, change tools, maintain a suitable industrial environment, etc. Seems a PLEK has a long way to go before it can compete with just how exactly irritating a human being I can specifically be....
Don't get me wrong there are good places for PLEKs but I just don't think that it's in a dedicated Lutherie repair shop or small builder shop yet unless you really push product through with multiple employees and a huge amount of business AND people don't come to you because of your skill and "touch..."
A couple of thoughts. I had a client with extremely unreasonable demands of string behavior on a 30" baritone. He was in Nashville, so I sent him to Joe Glaser who Plek'd the guitar. Sometime thereafter, I called Joe to ask how bad my fretwork was. He said I was over the 95th percentile of all the work he evaluates. A couple of minor flat spots, but that's it. There wasn't much he was able to do. I found that encouraging.
On the other side of things, I know that Jeff Traugott has all his guitars Plek'd. I would say Jeff has some of the most discerning and demanding expectations of any builder out there. That Jeff finds value in it says a lot. Is any device or person going to be be able to account for everything? No. But they are going to get there more accurately. I'd bet on average the Plek is far more accurate than the average fret job or dressing.
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Nor do they put the guitar in playing position and play Purple Haze when the work is done either..... dang things....