I mean there are things you can reasonably do better than the grocery store but something things are unrealistic. Like "just go to a gourmet cheese store" is not something you can do in most of the country.
I live in one of the largest metro areas with quite a few Michelin star and recommended eateries, lovely food culture, and we love our dairy. I think there are two dedicated cheese mongers you can walk into in the entire area, neither are particularly accessible.
If you live in a metro city then your regular old kroger/vons/ralphs whatever will have cheese monger tier cheese cut from wheels and sold by the pound. Hard, soft, moldy, sheep, goat, all of that stuff is pretty widely proliferated in this country. Maybe not if you lived hyper rurally but in a city of at least 100,000 this should certainly be possible.
The suggestion was just to try good cheese so you know what it is. $35 a pound is a bit pricey for cheese. Another option is to make your own. It is a skill, not a recipe, but most mistakes are extremely edible and tasty.
The biggest obstacle is that you need a cheese cave to age the cheese. This can be a small dorm refrigerator with something like an inkbird temperature controller.
I do know one family that makes cheese and then just eat it without the aging. Store it in the refrigerator. They think it is much better than store bought.
I think dedicated cheese mongers are a lot more accessible than you are envisioning based on your experience. I live in Denver, which is a large city but by no means one of the largest in the country. We have no Michelin star restaurants that I know of, we don't have a dairy industry or anything like that. We still have multiple dedicated cheese stores in the area that one can get to. It's not that niche to enjoy good cheese.
I wouldn't call it niche I just don't think "gourmet cheese store" is accessible to the average American. You can buy plenty good cheese at the supermarket.
I live in one of the largest metro areas with quite a few Michelin star and recommended eateries, lovely food culture, and we love our dairy. I think there are two dedicated cheese mongers you can walk into in the entire area, neither are particularly accessible.