Publishing a Book of Poetry

Hey guys.

No, I don't want advice on how to publish my own book of poems. I'm just curious.

I'm in doing a Masters in creative writing at the moment (in NZ) and we just had a guest speaker (who has had two books of poetry published in the States) come and talk to our class.
It was really interesting, but I was surprised when she talked about her route to publication (of a book of poetry).

She considered the standard route to be submitting to publishing contests, and estimated that she submitted to 20 or so per year, at an average of $35 a pop entry fees. She did this for both her books. First one took 5 years.
She also said that most of them are blind contests, so publishing credits supposedly don't matter that much for them (but she absolutely encouraged us to submit to journals).

She is not only a published author, but also a professor of English and married to another teacher who is also published, so I take her word for it.

But, seriously?
Our tutor (who is well published and known in NZ) compared it to her route, which was to submit directly to a press, after building up some publishing credits and then (in her words), all going well, they take care of you indefinitely after that.
I presume that's if you sell well enough to justify multiple books.
No agent, no contests... Although the fiction tutor then tuned in with "NZ is too small to need agents" which I don't quite believe.

Anyway, I guess I just assumed publishing a book of poetry would be the same as a novel... find an agent who then subs it to publishers (obviously there are other methods, like self-pubbing, etc. but this is the standard as far as I can tell).

Are contests really the standard route to publication of poetry books in the States? What about in other countries?

It seems like a good way to make struggling artists struggle even harder... I know I couldn't afford multiple $35 entry fees.

I'm kind of glad now I only have my heart set on being a poet on the side.

I'm glad there are other routes... that professor made it sound soul crushing. I felt bad for US poets!

Which was why I wondered if there was another path. She put this forward as pretty much the usual path for a poet to get a book published in the States... not the only way, but the way most people do it.
She told us both of her books had around 90% of the poems in them published elsewhere before the books came out, so she was definitely submitting to journals and the like also.

And, in the end she was successful; she has published two books with well respected companies, has won awards, is traveling in NZ talking to us about poetry... And she was well worth hearing.
I just wanted to hear from other experiences as well, out of curiosity.