I couldn't give a **** if you spent 20000 hours crop dusting to get where you are....my only concern -and you can probably take this as read for most newbies - is how do I get to where I want to be
I think the point is that other peoples actions
actually define how you get to where you want to be. Your journey, and implicated costs are decided by the general direction that other people have taken and decide to take.
Its this singular attitude of succombing to the money grabbing / profiteering on SSTR that will make your journey very expensive indeed (does it not cost the airline (e.g. EZY) around 10K for a TR and yet an SSTR is charged 30K?)