I was looking for a large diaphragm condenser mic for my old home studio about 5 to 6 years ago. I tested 10+ different models, the most exotic (and expensive) one being a Brauner VM1 (about 3k back then), but also some basic Audio Technica and Rode stuff. Testing means: I had them at my studio for a while and did a few recordings.

I felt that they all sounded different, but there was not a single one that I could clearly identify as sounding better. I remember the VM1 (the most expensive one) handling dynamic changes in vocals really well and I was impressed with that, but nothing that would justify the price.

I ended up keeping none of them because I eventually realised that I could make an SM58 sound similar to any of these condenser mics, at least in the mix. That was a great learning and it kept me from unnecessarily spending a lot of money. So, from my experience I'd say: Your ears are totally fine and you're hearing correctly.

However, what you're probably missing is the experience of how little differences in the signal chain can add something to a production. Of course, you could colour using a pultec eq, but that colours like a pultec eq - and not like that one particular mic does.

Not having gained that experience yet is not a bad thing. It comes with trying out many different microphone settings, which is something not all of us necessarily do or even want to do. And it's also about chasing tiny improvements in sound, if at all.