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Because it gives an idea of what range is expected for the actual price. If someone gets an estimate of "about fifty bucks" versus "about $51.04", their reaction to seeing a final price of say $62.17 would be different. The first one implies that it's a rough estimate, while the second one doesn't.

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"About" is doing a lot of work, too, no?

If someone said "about fifty bucks" and it turns out to be $62.17, I'd immediately understand them to be scamming me.

Really depends on what the context is. Maybe for a taxi ride when negotiating a price ahead of time, but pointing at an object, asking for its price, getting an estimate that's off, then getting the actual price before the transaction is completed doesn't feel like a scam.

Please price estimates for car repairs in dollars and cents and state it's only an estimate all the time.. with variations possible depending on what's discovered that might have been missed it that particular context.

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