There is also a difference between early OEM sheetmetal and those produced 15-20?? years later. Lines not as sharp as tooling gets worn. I had seen 2 fenders side by side where one was stored for years and the other in the 80's was fairly new. You could see a slight difference.
The guys that complain about the aftermarket parts are collison guys who are used to having cheap offshore repo parts shoved down their throats by Insurance Co's. Those parts are not licensed and can only replicate the part by like 80% without copyright problems. That 20% can mean it fitting or not.
Most of the newer endorsed sheetmetal is just as good as OEM lacking maybe a dimple or date code. Looking at the panel itself installed correctly it is hard if not impossible to tell the difference. The days of 1/2 panels that had the edges just left unfinished are hopefully in the past.
I would think a fender or hood is a better piece to judge because either it bolts on or it doesn't. A 1/4 panel has a sort of fudge factor where it can be adjusted or cut and modified.
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