I think "SAAS fatigue" is a thing that needs to be considered. The SAAS model is great for startups and companies seeking recurring revenue. But the modern developer stack now involves dozens of companies gunning for a $5-10/month slice of the pie.

In isolation, most developers could easily afford the $10/month for copilot. But most developers are probably using the free tier for half a dozen services. So the question isn't "Can I afford copilot?", but rather "Does copilot provide more value than upgrading plans on some other service?". For example, if you are using the free tier on Slack, maybe upgrading to the paid tier so you can access the full chat history provides way more value than copilot.

Also, another consideration is that $10 per month is certainly small. But I generally use software I purchase for multiple years. I would guess on average I use a piece of software for 3-5 years. If Copilot was offered for a single purchase price of $300-500, would you pay for it? Because that is likely how much you will spend over the lifetime of the subscription. For me, that price point is approaching the territory of professional tools like CAD software, Photo/video editing software, etc...

I can certainly see why Copilot would be worth $10/month. But I also could see why someone might be uncomfortable with that.