Honestly this has never been a problem for me. How many private repos do you really need? It can't cost that much per month. The things most people are working on just aren't that important. Or better yet, they _benefit_ from being public.
I don't have to think about costs when typing "git init", and I don't have to think about scrubbing passwords/keys/personal information when typing "git push"; repo-count pricing and public by default have high psychological overhead. GH's pricing doesn't work for me, so I don't keep my private repos there. Not a big deal, but I also don't think it indicates there's something wrong with how I work, the value of my code, or how I spend my money.
None benefit me by being public.