$18 can be "expensive".
People live in different conditions, have different income and (even more crucial) different expenses.
Not to mention subjective need. I may be interested in a relay, but I don't really need one. So for me 18$ will be too much. 5$? Maybe. (This is about as much as I'm paying for Fastmail right now, for example).
The point isn't "literally everyone can run it", but to refute that "only Bluesky can run it and thus lock everyone in".