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> Maybe [edibility] depends on the variety? / Isn't raw quince hard as a rock?

quite likely. The beautiful ornamental quince https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaenomeles_japonica is technically edible but hard and sour. You can see the fruits in the middle photo of the link - yellow, size of a large plum, and smell just amazing; really, if you ever get a chance to smell the ripe fruit, do. I understand they can be cooked to make them palatable.

> It's really bitter by fruit standards, more so than cooking apples.

Not bitter but sour (acidic). Anyway, happens I tried a cooking apple recently, am sure they're much less sour than when I was a kid. Anyway, compared to ornamental quince above, the ones you get in middle-eastern shops in london are much larger. Some examples, but not the right colour, can be seen here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quince and are perfectly edible raw and unsugared (edit: size is larger, about the size of a large cooking apple but shaped like a ruby ball)

I've got a quince bush in my yard... they smell amazing and taste wonderful cooked, but raw they will glue your mouth shut they are so tannic. I'm as flabbergasted as you to learn that there's a variety you can eat raw!

Maybe it depends on the variety? I’ve eaten a fair amount of quince, always cooked. I don’t think I would enjoy trying to eat the kind that I’ve bought raw, though it wouldn’t be impossible to get down.

That’s where I was confused as well. I remember eating raw quince and enjoying it. It was harder than an apple, for sure, but it was still enjoyable to eat. It must be that different varieties...

It's really bitter by fruit standards, more so than cooking apples.

There are different varieties. Some are indeed edible raw, but most are unpalatable unless cooked.

Isn't raw quince hard as a rock?