A bit besides the point, and not exactly disagreeing with you, but in my experience (living in Italy for over a year now) most Italians don't own a high-tier espresso machine. They have a cheap aluminum moka pot or a nespresso pod machine or perhaps a lower-tier Delonghi, etc. As a coffee nerd this surprised me a bit. I think part of it is that frequent and mainly fast coffee is prioritized over great coffee. Also, you can go get an espresso made on a god-tier machine at basically any corner for 1-2 euro.