The biggest part of your tone is you amp,
it's not.
it's pick ups.
you're never going to get a Gibson sound from a fender, you're never going to get a fender sound from a Gibson.
as for cheap guitars being trash...
well, yes, and yet no.
the pick ups, you can't help, if you've bought a cheap guitar and you want it to sound expensive you're probably going to want to replace them.
I don't know why they use such crappy pups in cheap guitars, there is pretty much zero difference in manufacturing costs between good and crap pups, so I guess it's almost like they put them in just to sabotage the guitar!
with regards the evenness of the frets, and everything else. if you buy a cheap guitar then you can't expect miracles, and if you wanted to save money at the point of sale then you're going to be spending your own time setting up your guitar. (rather than paying someone else to do it).
setting up your guitar is not just putting strings on it.
it's going to be flatting and profiling the frets.
it's going to be profiling the nut
it's going to be setting the neck
it's going to be adjusting the pick up height
it's going to be adjusting the individual saddle heights.
it's going to be adjusting the individual saddle positions, (setting intonation).
then, you might have a decent guitar, for a bit.
(I say for a bit, because over time some things will drift, the neck will go out of alignment, and need to have the truss rod adjusted, the intonation will go out, the action will go out, the frets will wear and need to be flatted and dressed). -but this is true even if you buy a thousand dollar (or more guitar)
I can understand that you're feeling pretty peeved with the guitar, even cheap guitars cost money, and you probably feel a bit like you wasted that money...
but to be honest there are plenty of articles on line about how to set up a guitar. (plenty of written instructions, plenty of videos on you tube).
as I said before, you've got a poorly set up guitar,
you're planning to replace that poorly made guitar,
aside from you time, what have you got to loose by having a go at trying to make it a better guitar?