I think it’s more likely that the consistent quality is a side bonus from most of 3M’s customers being other corporations, not individual consumers
If 3M only sold painter’s tape to the public, most of the public will buy it whether it’s crap or not because most of the public only needs to put up with painter’s tape occasionally
However if a large commercial real estate company who goes through palettes of painters tape suddenly has to start ordering 1.5x as many palettes because some of the tape is defective, they’ll threaten 3M with cancelling a multi-million-dollar contract that will hurt 3M’s quarterly spreadsheets.
That is until inevitably someone at 3M gets the idea to start producing a cheaper “consumer grade” painters tape and then everyone who doesn’t have a relative in building maintenance who can swipe a pro grade roll for you is SOL
blasphemy. they’re powered by tiny crabs