Cheese as a standalone course was a thing in Italy too, after the other courses, and it disappeared in recent decades.

You can see remnants in pop culture, e.g. in the '80s we had a tv quiz show called "il pranzo è servito" ("lunch is served") where participants had to win rounds for each of: first course, second course, cheese, dessert, fruit.

There was also a saying in central Italy "la bocca non è stracca se non sa di vacca" ("the mouth is not tired unless it tastes of cow", which in hindsight is odd cause there's mostly sheep cheese there) but by the '90s the cheese plate had switched to antipasti only, IME.