I’d add that if you don’t like ultra-rare beer then it’s kind of a waste. I’m not a fan of anything that isn’t medium, and by that temp a lot of the fine marbling is effectively lost. In short, when I finally had some real A5 I realized it was totally wasted on me. If you liked carpaccio though, it would probably be amazing. I think too often people attach value judgements to grades or things, to wine and the like, when the truth is thst individual taste is highly variable. If you like a sensibly priced bottle of wine, rejoice, it’s a good wine for you. If you’re someone who skews to the high priced bottles then that’s going to be rough on the wallet, but again that’s your taste.

The biggest mistake we make with food and drink is to “want the best” instead of wanting the best for us. There is subsitute for trying lots of different types of food and drink and choosing what you like the taste of most, not what’s most applauded by experts or in vogue.

I eat wagyu fairly often (I live in Japan and like to buy local). Of course it's Shizuoka wagyu since that's where I live, but as others have said the difference between various regions are not that great (I go to Takayama fairly frequently and eat Hida gyu, which is rated as highly as Kobe gyu these days and it's not that much better than Shizuoka yume wagyu).

IMHO eating wagyu as a steak is a waste for essentially the reason you state. The fat softens at that temperature and because there is so much of it, the texture suffers. I'll take a long aged, lower fat, dry cured cut over that any day of the week. Where wagyu really shines is yakiniku. When it is cut thin, the fat has somewhere to go and the flavour and texture are amazing. This is one of the reasons why if you buy wagyu steak at a teppen yaki place, they will typically cut it fairly thinly.

Wagyu is not actually that expensive in Japan. I mean it's expensive, but not the ludicrous prices that people pay overseas. IIRC 100g of Shizuoka bara (stomach -- think the same cut as bacon) is about $6. Sirloin is up around $16. That's still nearly $70 a pound, but if you aren't making a steak or a roast (for which it is really completely inappropriate) it's fine. When I do yakiniku at home with my wife, between the two of us we eat 300 grams of meat and that includes the pork (Shizuoka black pork is amazing).

I really like wagyu, but there are other traditions for preparing beef that are just as good (in a different way) and not as expensive.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I typically make a roast here using thigh meat (momo) and bard it with stomach. That is a fantastic combination and I can make a 1 lb roast for less than $20.

There's a chapter in "The Man Who Ate Everything" (which is excellent) about "Kobe", and you could sum it up as: it's a good product that is not simply a "better version" of other steaks, and if not prepared specially (as in, in dishes designed for A5 beef), it's pretty much a waste.

In my limited experience that’s a perfect way of putting it. I might have to read that book too, it seems interesting.

Highest possible recommendation. It is one of the great food books.

Yup and honestly the two times I’ve had Kobe I really couldn’t tell the difference between the same cut as non Kobe(yet still A5 Wagyu)- except for when the bill came.