[RetroTechie]

The cost of coding [something] (that may or may not serve purposes) is approaching 0. That doesn't mean code is (or came) cheap.

I'm reminded of a quote I heard recently, concerning military drones: "hardware becoming cheaper & cheaper. Software that controls it, becoming more & more expensive".

Read: opening a can of pre-coded stuff is 'free'. But: the engineering effort that went into that existing code, and the effort required to improve that, is on a hockey-stick curve.