Hi novakom,
I read the description of your new mattress, and I don’t see any “buckling column gel” in the design. I only see one quarter inch of gel infused memory foam, which is in there only so Bob can claim that the mattress has gel foam in it. I don’t know why the mattress is so hard, though given the cheapness of their materials, I would expect it to soften quickly, and then start to break down.
I do have a thought. You might want to get a latex foam topper and use it for your comfort layer. If you wait for this mattress to break in it will probably be too late to use it as a firm support for a soft top layer. You will find many descriptions of possible toppers on this site, and you might want to look at the Seven Comforts topper as a cheap way to try this approach. From what I have read here, it is unlikely that a topper will work on a broken down mattress, but if used on one that is still firm it will add some length of life to cheap materials that are under it and haven’t broken down yet.
https://forum.mattressunderground.com/t/review-of-the-seven-comforts-latex-topper
Phoenix, the mattress guru here, can give you some feedback on toppers, has tried a number of them. My thought was to find a way to get some more comfortable years out of your current investment.
Good luck, Lew