Welcome to the Newschoolers forums! You may read the forums as a guest, however you must be a registered member to post. Register to become a member today!
Here in whistler we are finding the opposite. Lots of snowboarders are comming back to skiing as the boots have inproved so much since they last skied. 10 years ago even boots were pretty basic but now they are so much better and easier to fit. SB in comparsion are harder to fit when problems arise as they are leather and not plastic so strech and punch work does not really work well on SB boots. I always find it easier to get a good fit with a ski boot rather then a SB boot.
As far as you having average feet and could wear a boot out of teh box is just rubish. For one ski boot manufactuers put really cheap insoles in them as thy expect you to change them to preferably a custom footbed. No one should ever be sold a boot straight off the shelf. Everyone will need a boot fitting it just depends to what degree.
And regarding uncomfy boots in my 22 years of skiing I have only had one uncomfy boot ever and that was just that it was the wrong boot for me but I got a free pair so thought Id try to get them to fit. It really is a myth that boots should or will hurt. If there fitted well once they bed in they will be comfy. Also just to mention if boots feel good in the shop there probably not right for you. The liner will expand around a size in the first 15 hours of use so becuase of this you should feel that the boots are too tight in the shop. Thats why there are allot of bad boot fitters, they sell boots that feel comfy in teh shop to make a sale but ingore teh fact the boots will dwith use.