I don't disagree that tabloid accounting is stupid, however beancounting is important in war.
So fighter pilots should close to short range and use "cheap" Sidewinder/ASRAAM and avoid using "expensive" AMRAAM. Or better yet, close to gun range so they can use even cheaper gun rounds. And only drop cheap dumb bombs and never expensive guided weapons. And should mostly fly cheap Jaguars, avoid flying expensive Typhoons, and NEVER fly exhorbitantly expensive F-35s.
And when flying MPA, the crew should limit their sonobuoy fields to three or four buoys to cut down on costs. And use only "cheap" LOFAR buoys rather than expensive DIFAR buoys and heaven forbid exhorbitant Active Buoys. And only fly cheap C295 MPA aircraft and not expensive P-8 MPA aircraft.
And infantry should use handguns as much as possible because 9mm ammo is much cheaper than 5.56mm ammo. And avoid using machine guns altogether because the vast majority of machine gun rounds miss their target and that's just a waste of ammo. And forget about using weapons that require exhorbitantly expensive 7.62mm or heaven forbid 12.5mm ammo.
Makes sense to me.