When I started out, I was EXACTLY in the same boat. I spent lot of time researching different "strains" of honey bees. I reached out to all kinda queen producers including the official Russian Queen Producers association. I was hell bent on acquiring the "BEST" queen bee that nature invented.
After 6 months of that, it slowly occurred to me that honey production, varroa problems, survival was not JUST up to the breed and that once the queen swarms, the next generation was going to be whatever it will be.
So I got two nucs from our local association. I knew they came from georgia. And one from a local "Carniolan" supplier. The carniolan queen perished soon after. I spent first 6 months with very hands-on approach, split them to 4 hives, caught few swarms and learned to do oxalic acid. In the middle of summer, when queens were plenty in the market, I purchased two queens from Sam Comfort up in NY.
I think I purchased two more queens from Sam a year later. Learned to raise queens next year. Never purchased bees again.
I am hobbyist, sell few nucs every year to thin the herd and keep my queen rearing hobby active.
In summary, my humble advise is to get what you can from a local supplier, without costing an arm and a leg. Learn to grow and split. Go into winter with more hives than you want. And go from there.