Already Chairs, Desk and Rent for every engineer is more expensive than 200 USD every year. Their salary is many hundred times 200 USD. I pay more for coffee and water that they can get for free every year.
Independent devs without income can get PHPStorm at much lower rates.
Notebooks in Brazil are almost three times as expensive as abroad, internet costs are through the roof here as well as living costs...
I thought this through, I just have a harder reality than you I guess
And if you are an individual, the license is just 89 USD.
If you are an individual contractor, then maybe you quality for a startup discount? This also gives you 50%: https://www.jetbrains.com/phpstorm/buy/#personal?billing=yea...
They also have an Early Access Program that you try out beta releases, and they are free of cost.
Individual license starts at $89, and fall to $71 in the first renewal, then to $53 onwards. So I think it is not that expensive. YMMV.
In my part of the world it is, too. But I don't think that's the case for _every_ engineer worldwide.