Agreed. I do know that ISO and at least two national standards bodies I work with basically do charge on a cost-covering basis (which is why pricing is largely tied to tiers of page count, which is a reasonable proxy in most cases to effort/time). But industry/hobbyists shouldn't really cover this cost - or should do through general corporation taxation.

To be legally compliant to install cables in the UK I've got £500 of standards on my desk. We actually pay our national body circa £5k a year for access to various industry standards we need to be able to hold suppliers to account. Govts should just properly fund this stuff.