Once I got the coffee bug I used to buy French Roast from a local shop and really enjoyed it.
But then I decided to roast my own beans so as to maximize freshness. Although I kept at it for about 18 months, using a hot air pop corn popper as my roaster ultimately led to the end of my roasting career. I could only roast 3/8s of a cup of beans at a time, and that meant ~17 roasts, each lasting for about 8 or 9 minutes to roast a pound of beans. Getting a roaster that would roast a cup to a cup and a half of beans at a time and thus cut the time of my roasts, and that wouldn't catch fire, was way to expensive. Roasting a pound of Sumatra thus cost me about 3 hours. Now if I hadn't found an alternative, I still might be roasting today, that alternative being the humble but very tasty Cafe Bustelo. Yes, the beans that I roasted tasted better, but not not better to the extent that they justifed the time and effort. And were I to continue to buy whole bean, they would of course be better, but not so much as to justify their expense.
I've been drinking Cafe Bustelo for about three years without complaint. But when I get a cup of coffee made from whole bean, I do enjoy it more.