I actually kind of disagree. Lobster may be the most overrated seafood item out there. I’m a huge seafood fan and I’d have Maine Lobster behind quite a few seafood items including in no particular order: Dungeness Crab, Blue Crab, Snow Crab, Stone Crab, Jonah Crab, Rock Crab, Edible Brown Crab, Spider Crab, King Crab, Bairdi Crab, Golden Crab, Australian and New Zealand Rock Lobster, African Rock Lobster, Slipper/Shovelnose Lobster, Moreton Bay Bugs, Balmain Bugs, Paua Shells, Yabbies, American Crawfish, abalone, uni/sea urchin, most squids, most octopus, most cuttlefish, Atlantic oysters, Pacific oysters, flat/belon/European oysters, Kumamoto oysters, Olympia oysters, geoducks, razor clams, softshell/steamer clams, pen shells, bay scallops, Atlantic sea/diver scallops, king scallops, cockles, periwinkles, lots of whelk species, Queen conch, Horse Conch, Giant Turban conch, King/Spanish Helmet Conch, gooseneck barnacles, acorn barnacles, langostinos, rock shrimp, red shrimp, pink shrimp, Atlantic white shrimp, Pacific White Shrimp, Sugar Shrimp, “Popcorn“ Shrimp, Florida hopper shrimp, Atlantic brown Shrimp, Tiger Shrimp, Spot Prawn (one of my all time favorites), pink prawn, blue leg/giant freshwater prawn, Dublin Bay prawn, carabineros prawn/cardinal prawn/Spanish red shrimp, and probably some more I’m forgetting. And that’s just the shellfish, if you count fish species we’d be here all day.
Just about the only shellfish I wouldn’t voluntarily choose over the Maine Lobster that I can think of are the European/Blue/Common lobster, the Florida/Caribbean/Spiny/“Warmwater Rock” lobster, calico lobsters, brown lobsters, California spiny lobsters, Japanese spiny lobsters, spotted/Guinea Chick lobsters, ornate spiny lobsters, greenlip mussels, blue/common mussels, horseshoe crab, limpets of all types, sea cucumbers of all types, and common/quahog/hard shell clams even the raw littlenecks which I sometimes order at raw bars as a contrast to the oysters.
Plus, the Maine Lobsters transport quite well when alive so you’re getting just as tasty Maine lobsters in Iowa and Florida as you are in Maine. The only real benefit to going to Maine is how cheap the lobsters are there as I went to one lobster pound about 5-6 years ago (unfortunately permanently closed due to the pandemic plus only a limited season of tourists) that had a dinner of three steamed 1.5 lb “chicken” lobsters plus lobster chowder and two sides for only $20.
What I found out I actually loved in Maine was the softshell/steamer clams. I’d never had them to my knowledge before heading up to Maine and they are ridiculously good, far tastier than the hardshell/quahog/common clam.