Was born with super small feet in the 1st percentile as well as hands due to a benign genetic issue. Totally healthy but shoe shopping is always awkward. Have decent balance and can walk and run fine as my calf muscles are quite developed to compensate. No, the myth isn’t true.
I understand your struggle but I’m 6’1 too and size 46 (EU) which seems like an appropriate size for this height, and while I don’t feel that tall (most young colleagues are getting taller and taller), it’s almost impossible to find size 46 in shoe stores so I have to buy shoes online (and not try them beforehand).
I really don’t care about fashion, so the comfort of shoes is the only thing important to me. So I’ve been buying online the same pair of shoes (brand and model) for 10 years.
I never got to say this in the reddit days, but here goes: “dude, are you me?”. The only difference is that I buy the same brand (Asics), and not the same exact shoe/model.
46 shouldn’t be that hard to find surely? In my experience most shoes go up to 46 but availability drops off dramatically after that. I use 48/49 and had a lot of difficulty until the government decided to subsidise custom footwear because of my flat feet.