> I was handed 150$/mo budget and no subs, and while it was frustrating at first, with better tooling, context management and especially OAI models it's a breeze now and not even using 70% mostly while achieving a lot in a small team.

It's great that the project/team you were in had skills/cycles to do it.

In many cases this is pure yak shaving so to speak. Consider an embedded project where there are tons of tedious things to be tied together; Also, the project velocity is more important than saving another 1k per year. The decision not to switch is the smart choice in many cases.