Yeah, this is an issue of appropriate build quality, nothing else. As noted, a wheel breaking spokes within 50 miles is outrageous, and a clear indicator it was improperly constructed, Also an indicator your shop has no clue is suggesting titanium spokes, and if you haven’t been riding double-wall rims, well, that’s proof of subpar component quality.
The important factors here are component quality and build quality, not spoke count. You want strong rims, hubs with wide flange spacing, quality spokes, and for everything to be properly assembled and tensioned.
I’d suggest getting wide (+19mm internal), deep-section rims for strength, like 28-30mm in either alu or carbon, drilled for triplet lacing to hubs which afford the best bracing angle with wide, aero profile spokes or double-butted round spokes screwed into spherical head nipples like DT Swiss Pro or Sapim Polyax. Or, at least, a quality brass nipple with washers.
You can take all that to a quality wheel builder, or just pick a prebuilt, of which there are many. I’ve been riding at 240lbs-250lbs for more than a decade on lousy, Michigan roads with off-the-shelf wheels without any issues, most often 18f/24r spoke, sub 1500g aluminum. That’s not proof of anything, of course, but take it as a serious counterpoint to those who will claim it’s stupid to run anything with fewer than 36 spokes. Spoke count is merely a crutch for lack of wheelbuilding know-how, or at the very least, a cover story for wheelbuilders incapable of getting the right parts for such wheels. Triplet lacing, for example, which ensures even spoke tension on both sides (a main factor in durability) can be very hard to find hubs for outside of the big wheel brands (who don’t sell them as imdividual components), so finding a builder who can offer that is challenging, yet brands like Campagnolo/Fulcrum and Shimano pump out heaps of OE and aftermarket triplet-laced wheels.
If you really want to plow the conventional Clyde wisdom under, grab a pair of Spinergy GX32, which use fiber spokes. Yeah, I run a pair of those trouble free myself, on my gravel bike…actually the lower profile GX, but same fiber spokes, and only 24 of ‘em per wheel.
One might wonder how it’s possible a 250lbs rider capable of kicking out +1400w, can ride so few spokes made of plastic fibers, over rough, irregular gravel roads with washboard and potholes, and the answer is math and science, of course. It’s not new math and science, either; Henry Ford discovered the benefits of triplet wheel lacing in 1926: