In my opinion most cues play good, it's just that some are exceptional, or exceptional to people for various reasons.
We can take a Dale Perry, tune up the shaft with the right tip & ferrule combination, and they play excellent.
Rarely is a cue just a dog, but it does happen, I won't get into it but I've had a few.
I bought an old McDermott D-19, the original tips were so old that they shredded when you tried to shape them, and I ran 3 racks with it the first day.
I guess you could call that pretty good playing McDermott.
An old Ernie Martinez sneaky I just picked up plays so good it doesn't seem to matter what shaft I use.
I've tried it with the original Ernie shaft, an old Schon shaft, a nice leftover custom shaft, an old Josswest shaft, and they all take the ball right to the pocket.
It's just uncanny how it plays.
You can buy generic production or import cues and they can be tuned up, but some of
these custom cues seem to play great no matter what.
The shaft taper, ferrules, tips, and choices like cored vs. not-cored can really make a difference from an individual standpoint.
You are right Ted.
My humble Lucasi has run multiple racks of most games.