To be clear, some of the token expense is because it's encouraged, and it's encouraged at some companies so that people will break out of their existing workflows to hopefully find useful new ways of working or building
There is more to it than this, but much of the cost structure around subscriptions etc is specifically designed to allow for that experimentation.
There are good cynical takes, here, too. At the current model costs I don't need to optimize my expenses, but that could change if it climbs eg above 30% of my salary^
Note: this is an easy thing to prove ROI on. If I'm writing 5-6x more code and reviewing commensurately more code, and those PRs are better-tested and get us to shipping quality features faster, this is easy to justify and we are not that price sensitive
There is more to it than this, but much of the cost structure around subscriptions etc is specifically designed to allow for that experimentation.
There are good cynical takes, here, too. At the current model costs I don't need to optimize my expenses, but that could change if it climbs eg above 30% of my salary^
Note: this is an easy thing to prove ROI on. If I'm writing 5-6x more code and reviewing commensurately more code, and those PRs are better-tested and get us to shipping quality features faster, this is easy to justify and we are not that price sensitive
^ https://x.com/SemiAnalysis_/status/2070915302058041450