That is the problem with how organizations prioritize capex over opex in their budgeting. Most teams I've worked for can request a bigger capex budget for a project because it is "one time". Even though they ask for a bigger budget every year.

But asking for more annual opex is a harder sell on the bean counters, because the increase of operating expense of a department is seen as a permanent thing. It only goes up, never down, so lets just not give them money for it.