> But I, like most people, am not actually forgoing paid work if I were to do them myself

There’s more to opportunity cost than money. That’s time with family, time to just chill, time for hobbies, all sorts of stuff.

Every time you pay to outsource a task you could do yourself by just putting in the time, you are explicitly saying “Having this time back is worth $X to me”. That is a direct measure of how much your time is worth to you.