Realistically, gaming is an inexpensive hobby if you’re smart about it. I’m astounded at what people spend on things like dining, alcohol, sports (travel and gear), hunting, boats/atvs, etc. That $60 game you’ll play every day for a month would be a daily expense in other circles.
Let’s be thankful we don’t live in the 80s anymore. Games are much more expensive than when taking inflation into account.
For certain kinds of games I like to buy them for full price to show my support to the developers. I bought Original Sin 2 for full price and I’m buying Baldur’s Gate 3 at full price.