Irons are also not really getting used up, so if you truly follow the "replace if it breaks" rule you're potentially using crap a loooong time.
To bring it around to programming, imagine trying to debug code in GEdit+Terminal vs having the latest and greatest Jetbrains IDE to help out (ignoring the fact that the community editions are actually pretty functional - let's time travel back 20 years when you had to pay for VS or Borland). One is way more frustrating than the other; one is way more likely to lose motivation.
Or soldering - avoid the cheapest harbor freight iron, and EBay a used Weller for $50+shipping. If you never solder again pass it on and you're out the shipping costs. Weller irons have been and always will be around $50~$60 used.
Yes! I gave it a try a few years ago and I am impressed.
It's faster, denser, and cleaner than soldering wires onto perfboard. Being able to rework by just unwinding a wire is great. I don't use proper wirewrap sockets, but it seems reliable for one-off hobby prototypes.
no, you can't undermine the idea with this trick. For example (grabbing examples from other comments in this thread), while an expensive soldering iron might be much better than a cheap one, there is no way you know before you start whether you're going to be soldering a lot.
I know how to solder, I've soldered a lot since I was about 13, and I can solder just fine with a crappy soldering iron (just like good pizza makers can use a primitive wood fired oven) but after I learned to wire-wrap, I put down my soldering iron almost for good... and does wire-wrapping even exist any more? If I wanted to take it up again, I'd find antique wirewrapping tools before I'd torture myself with soldering anything. All of which is my way to say, if I can't predict how much soldering I'm going to do, then no beginner can predict whether an expensive soldering iron is what they need or not.
Maybe if you went out and geared up with the most expensive technical mountain climbing gear, you could climb Everest on your first try, and you could then make the case that had you bought the cheap stuff you would have been discouraged by frostbite. But that's just not a good plan.