There are cultures (basically whole South Europe for example) where relation with food and its preparation is something personal, to share with friends and family and preparation is highly social event... something not so common in US I think (definitely not in eastern Europe that I can attest). QoL item for sure, but its impact highly subjective.

I can do for example pizza tasting on par with best restaurants out there. I don't do the best dough, but I can do toppings no restaurant can/does offer - ie various old aged cheeses like AOP gruyere, old dutch gouda, aged cheddar, italian ones, mixed with truffles or black garlic and so on. Better olives than restaurants use. Ham I know source of, not cheapest questionable crap from warehouse. Spices & herbs mix that is again not used in restaurants.

Just a footnote - its very different product compared to typical US 'pizza', in some cases I would call those cakes (ie Chicago style, pizza-inspired cake), but above is still valid.

> something not so common in US I think

Not as common as many places in the world, but it's also not rare. How true it is in the US depends a lot on where in the US you are.