Yes de cecco, molisana, garofalo or voiello are quite available everywhere in Italy, its still factory made but with more care and with bronze cut

If you want to go on expensive stuff you need to look into “monograno”, basically means “single grain” a 1kg pack could go up for 6-10 €

Worth it? For everyday use only if you make it an hobby, otherwise a normal bronze cut is enough.

I would still eat barilla, but only if its the only alternative to not having pasta

In france they eat a lot of “panzani” which I believe its still Italian, but quite shit in quality, very unexpensive

Bronze cutting is slower (so less efficient) but being slower make the pasta more “rough” and not smooth. This makes sauce stick more to it

Italian here. Barilla is considered the bare minimum. Its not a high quality pasta, although they have a bronze cut kind which I never tried.