It's definitely not true. I bought several dozens of these in the last decade for various projects and the price was definitely an important factor for some of them (especially the ones that I hope to be running for decades).
because "you have to spend money to make money" and building a resource people value for free despite the fact that you loose money, and then charging or asking for money is a proven technique for earning way more than $7 a month. It could be a financial stretch that has them on the edge, in hopes of earning a significant reward later.