You often see comments about cheap guitars, like "nice guitar, decent wood, but electronics are crap".

I know from experience that cheap guitars often have pickups of lower quality. They are the first thing to go in a cheap guitar in my eyes.

But what about the "electronics"? Wire, pots, switches (anything else?) - I can see cheap ones might break sooner, but does changing these out for more expensive one really make any difference in tone?