Production, like most other aspects of music, isn't enough to make a song - but it easily can break a song. I think you understand this, as you said, "After you've reached a certain point in production, everything more is just bonus to the audience." This is true. Unless you spend lots of time in production, you're not going to notice anything great in production.
And I think you're underestimating the skill that goes into any level of production. I use pretty high-end mixing and mastering plugins, yes, but I can assure you that if you gave those to someone without skill, I could produce a much more professional track with free VSTs online.
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