Many online retailers are in fact full-blown, operating nurseries. There are some shady ones out there, but there are also many top-notch nurseries shipping wonderful trees. There are even some good Ebay and FB Marketplace sellers. Just do your Google searches and utilize the search function on this forum. If the trees you received were not satisfactory, then you didn't do your homework.
Yeah...some are very expensive, such as Plant-O-Gram, but what I've read is that they normally send very nice trees...and used to send something extra in the box as well...although I don't know if they continue this practice currently. If you have the luxury and good fortune to be able to visit nurseries, of course, that is king. Many of us don't have that option and must resort to online. Just be careful of who bare roots and what is being bare rooted. Find out how good their packaging is...you don't want a plant all crushed or broken up due to piss-poor packaging. Shipping costs? If you've never prepared a plant for shipping, you should try this before you judge too harshly. True...some get carried away., but most are legit expenses.