A $20 extension tube or reversing ring will turn even any plain 50mm prime into a fine macro lens. There really isn’t an upper limit on lens hugeness or cost for people chasing that last 1% of performance.
I bought a cheap DSLR extension tube and a $15 ring light on eBay to do macro photography of electronic components. They work much better than I expected for the price. I'm sure an expensive macro lens would be better but this setup works fine for me.
My take on macro lenses is that they are sort of bulky lenses designed with the extension tube built in, so you can go from infinity to 1:1 or similar.