Is there a way to make Mac's spoken text sound more realistic?

Re: "Is there a way to make Mac's spoken text sound more realistic?"

You may want to experiment with the available settings:

Change Spoken Content settings for accessibility on Mac - Apple Support

or

(Non-Apple) YouTube video discussing settings etc: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBvUZBETlZU

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Re: "Is there something I'm missing, or is semi-realistic speaking still not available as part of the Mac OS?"

As well as the Mac (Spoken content > Speak selection) option, Apple provides VoiceOver on Mac in accessibility.

VoiceOver is your Mac computer’s built-in screen reader. Besides reading the screen, VoiceOver has other features, (eg: screen-navigation) that especially assist those with little or no eyesight to use their computer.

Apple provides a user-guide that may assist in making some, or full, use of VoiceOver if you want to:

VoiceOver User Guide for Mac - Apple Support

Eg: One of the articles explains how to: Learn and practice VoiceOver on Mac - Apple Support

Hi Satchmo,

I'm with brbo on checking out the speech settings, specifically, try different voices to see which sounds best to you.

Change the voice your Mac uses to speak text

And you may want to check which voice you like on the iPhone and try the same voice on the Mac.

For example, I like English (United States) Siri (Voice 5) with CarPlay navigation on the iPhone. She sounds clear and easy to understand. (Although I like to try different voices on the Mac.)

ivan

Change the voice your Mac uses to speak text - Apple Support