Hi VA.confused,
The better options and possibilities I’m aware of in the general Washington, DC area are in post #2 here.
Savvy Rest has some very high quality mattresses but as you discovered they are significantly more than many other mattresses that use the same materials. Generally I use a guideline of about a 20% - 25% difference between a local and online purchase of a comparable mattress (with an “apples to apples” comparison) to consider them roughly equivalent value because of the lower risk that can be involved in a local purchase but in their case they are much more of a “local premium” than that so whether the significantly higher cost for a very similar mattress was “worth it” to you would depend on each person’s “value equation”. The original post I linked has a list of the online manufacturers (post #21 here) that includes the manufacturing members here that make very similar mattresses at much lower prices. You also of course have other options in the DC area as well that may also be better “value” as well.
A forum search on “Savvy Rest” (you can just click this) will also bring up a great deal more information about them and other mattresses that other forum members that have tested them have considered as well.
Wool is one of the best temperature regulators available (it’s used in both the desert and in cold climates) and latex as a whole is also the coolest of the three different types of foam (polyfoam, memory foam, latex). You can read much more about the the many factors that affect the sleeping temperature of a mattress in post #2 here along with post #29 here (if you want more information yet)…
In other words you have heard some misinformation 
You’re very welcome … and if you have more questions along the way don’t hesitate to post them here.
Phoenix