I only eat tomatos that I grow. Grocery store tomatos taste like wet cardboard.
You are absolutely correct.
Commercial tomatoes, among other fruits (why do we call it a vegetable when it’s really a fruit?) are ripened with ethylene gas.
The ethylene gas triggers the ripening process. It occurs naturally in plants.
But done artificially it’s said to result in bland tasting food.
https://thereidhomestead.com/how-to-ripen-green-tomatoes/
I haven't bought any tomatoes in years for that reason.
Fresh off the vine cherry tomatoes are best.
THAT is because they are picked GREEN & Put into a warehouse & a gas is used to force them to turn RED.
THEY ARE NEVER ACTUALLY “RIPE”
Tomatoes should be renamed crapmatos. They are no longer tomatoes in my book. They are disgusting and I have no desire to eat them. But oh how I long for the days when Tomatoes were so good. juicy, sweet, and tangy. But for now I pick them off everything and throw them away. Very rarely have I even found the home grown ones to be great anymore. Even the seeds have been messed with.