No, he’s simply saying he didn’t want to pay that much to use an existing engine.
Do the math on what he has spent developing said engine (so far). What he has spent buying and manufacturing the tooling required.
We have seen how much cash he has been burning.
It is somewhat convenient to exclude all of that time, effort and R&D from the cost calculation and then compare it to an engine where those costs aren't just included, but also have gone through the extensive work to certify it.
You would need to be incredibly naive to take all the superficial marketing speak that Hill regurgitates at face value.