A real dog costs much more than $50 after recurring long term food and medical expenses like annual vet visits.
But it's not like this tech device will have a lesser maintenance cost.
You have to replace your phone every few years, imaging that with a dog. Then think about the dollar and environmental cost of throw away tech devices.
My honest uninformed sentiment: The device has very little utility so it will have no maintenance cost. ;)
My feeling is that there is no overlap whatsoever between use cases for a real dog vs. a robot dog…