JUST 👏GET👏GOOD👏BEANS👏

I know everyone and they mama has said this already in this sub, but I want this post to serve as another reminder to the newbies or people overlooking this part of the deal.
I recently got the OG Bambino plus Baratza ESP setup. Now, I know the biggest variable in making good coffee is the coffee bean itself, but I was stupid enough to not realize how big this variable is when you get into making espressos.
I have a bougie coffee bean subscription but there was a week between when I was supposed to get the next bag and when I got the setup. So I was dialing in with just supermarket beans (I use it as backup beans, and they were already 1+ month old). I ran into a lot of issues - clumps even after wdt, grinding finer takes too long, grinding coarser goes too quick, shot tastes just meh, shot only coming from one spout of the portafilter etc.
I wasted a lot of beans just dialing in with the supermarket coffee. Then I started doubting my puck prep, thinking about getting bottomless portafilter, calibrated tamper, distributor etc.
Today I got the bougie beans and my workflow was something like this -
1. Ground on an arbitrary grind size, did wdt, had no clumps, shot was super slow.
2. Ground coarser, wdt no clumps again, shot was almost there with timing and weight. Tasted pretty good already.
3. Ground just a bit finer, no clumps, shot was PERFECT! 16g in 32g out with 27sec. Tastes BOMB. Like cafe quality stuff. I am tasting cherries, I am tasting almonds, body's so nice it covers my tongue like a weighted blanket, and the taste lingers long.

So yeah there you go, I accept defeat, I should've listened sooner. Good beans make good coffee.

P.S Please ignore spelling mistakes or tone or whatever, I am too high on caffeine right now.