They built the rocket out of raw material which they paid for. I’m not sure what’s hard to follow here. Rockets aren’t free. How is that controversial?

SpaceX has built and scrapped 17 Starships, 14 of them without even a static fire. They have scrapped four Super Heavy boosters, three of them without firing.

Test flights require fuel, planning, approval, and of course flight hardware. None of that is free.