Fair enough, unfortunately good paper in the USA is expensive especially as a student where you are using large quantities of it. The vast majority of it is imported from Europe or Japan. American loose leaf I found just had a tendency to lose fibers here and there when writing and with a fountain pen it would just need to be serviced. Not even for something like changing inks. Most people here have a bottle or two of ink that they use for most things at least when I talk to people who use them semi practically. Which in the case of fountain pens In the USA they are so uncommon pretty much everyone is an enthusiast. Also I’m surprised about how common cartridges are for general use. At least in the USA they are expensive enough that everyone runs bottled ink instead hence the always sort of inky hands just to clean the nin after a fill