I think people need to keep this in perspective. Most of us do this as a hobby including me even though I am a professional player and do a lot of gigs. My gigging has nothing to do with these programs except for one summer about 4 years ago when I subbed for a friend as a single act. I did use Biab on my laptop briefly for some of that but otherwise it's just a fun hobby.

As a hobby compare this to other hobbies people have, golf, water skiing, camping, RC airplanes etc, etc. What's the yearly cost of going to a golf course a couple times a month playing a round and having lunch in the clubhouse? That stuff easily costs thousands a year. Even basic fun stuff can cost many hundreds. Just a one weekend camping trip or visit to a national park of a few hundred miles could be five bills. Maybe you like going to the lake and renting jet ski's. Easily a grand for one summer of that. My sister is a movie fanatic so she sees all the latest ones and she likes all genres, dramas, scifi, romance, animations, whatever. She's my go to person for reviews because I only see a few, usually the big blockbuster ones like Transformers or Harry Potter. She used to love going to drive ins because those were fun and cheaper than the theater. Now it costs her at least a hundred and a half a month for tickets and popcorn and don't forget the gas in the car. At $4 a gallon gas is not a small cost either to do anything fun. It's all about personal priorities and what floats your boat.

$3-500 a year to keep up with all the PG upgrades and to upgrade your PC every few years fits right into the hobby scenario and is on the lower end of those costs for what you get imho. I certainly know the economy sucks right now and many have had to cut back so you can only do what you can do.

Bob

Biab/RB latest build, Win 11 Pro, Ryzen 5 5600 G, 512 Gig SSD, 16 Gigs Ram, Steinberg UR22 MkII, Roland Sonic Cell, Kurzweil PC3, Hammond SK1, Korg PA3XPro, Garritan JABB, Hypercanvas, Sampletank 3, more.