$100 per compared to however much you make per year using that tool is nothing if that tool makes you more productive. Personally, I haven’t found a lot of great alternatives. Picking the best text editor is like picking the best mail client: you settle for the least shitty one. I am happy to pay good developers for good tools that make me more productive. Focusing on open source at all costs is a great way to ignore the actual costs of those tools.

Also, developers are spoiled af. Imagine if you worked in industrial design or something. The standard there is something like solidworks or autocad. You’d get laughed out of the room if you tried to stumble through with some open source alternative. Just the software can be $x000/year and that’s not even considering the hardware that some might need to stay productive. You want to actually prototype something? Pony up another pile of money for a CNC or a laser cutter or whatever + the operator time (if you don’t know how to do it) + the materials.