I get what you're saying but I don't think that's the right analogy here.

Part of the cost is the amortization of the development cost of building and training the model. Perhaps that's why there is a monthly subscription component. That would make economic sense, although I suspect it's more psychological in that you want people to use your product and a subscription makes that easier. If you think about the cost of each generation then you're not going to have a good time using it.

My point was more though that you pay for the convenience and the inference cost. I can also make my own bread, but my local bakery or supermarket can make it much more efficiently at scale and cheaper.