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When you tune a piano, you are adjusting screws that tighten and loosen the piano wire. Engines are exactly like this, except not. They are full of little mechanical components (and an electrical one, the computer, I will mention later) that can be adjusted and cleaned, replaced and removed. Engines are also incredibly intricate machines, where the exact amount (down to number of molecules) of reactants matters, as well as the timing of the various cycles down to microseconds can affect performance. So when you tune, you are effectively doing exactly what you do to a piano. You are adjusting the parts so that the perfect amount of air, gas, timing, etc are in each cylinder at the perfect time so that the engine runs as efficiently as possible. No it doesn’t have to do with power, you don’t tune to get more power, you tune to make it work better. This will increase power as you are getting more complete burns and extracting as much energy out of the burn as the engine will allow, but that is not the point of a tuning.
Now, some things are obviously not possible with current tech in any practical sense. So really it’s just about getting it good enough. Additionally, most easily controllable things on your modern car is run by the CPU, so timing is usually adjusted in there. You often aren’t replacing or modifying physical components when doing the tuning, just adjusting the timing on things the CPU controls, electronically. You do still need to adjust some things physically, so it’s not entirely electronic now as some here have been implying. The computer can’t tighten a screw for you after all.
The point of a tuning is to make the engine parts you have work at their best level, so if you get a new air filter or compressor or spark plug or something, you will need to tune the engine after it is installed so the new part works properly. Imagine having a piano and you get the new and improved titanium wire, guaranteed to blast your enemies ear drums with a small key press ™!!1!!1!. You now still need to tune that wire so it is, wait for it, in tune. Sure the power could be better on its own, but it will sound awful unless you tune it!
The tldr, you can’t tune for power, you tune for efficiency. Adjust those screws and nozzles and such until the engine runs nicely and efficiently.
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