I have never seen bread frozen without a serious impact on quality.

That's why the places which have done that to you, without you noticing or even suspecting, don't show it to you: if you see it, you'll imagine you can tell. You can't.

The difference is quite stark and easy to tell. Putting bread in the freezer results in bread that is like week-old stuff. It's absolutely not a trick of perception.

But perhaps the effect differs according to the kind of bread.

The freezing has zero impact on quality. Think about it -- why would it? You think the crystalization of water is going to change the texture of bread?

If you see a decrease in quality, it's either from freezer burn or incorrect reheating. Freezer burn is trivial to eliminate simply by sealing in plastic, as everything in your freezer should be sealed. And defrosting/reheating simply has to be done slowly, covered/uncovered as necessary depending on crust.

Bread freezes incredibly well.

Bread freezes just fine, I could name you a bunch of 3 star Michelin places serving frozen bread every day.

You still want a humidity controlled oven for reheating, so not necessarily super convenient at home.

A high-end baker I work with (https://triticum.net/) only sells frozen bread, everything comes with extensive instructions for reheating.

Needing special equipment or an unusual process to defrost indicates that it doesn't freeze well in the sense most people mean, but that it can be done with effort.

When I need to freeze bread, I don't bake the loaves fully first. I get them maybe 80% the way, then freeze. Then I can complete the bake after thawing.

I get reasonably decent results that way, although you can still tell.

> Bread freezes just fine, I could name you a bunch of 3 star Michelin places serving frozen bread every day.

Please do.