Obsidian publishing costs USD 8 per month. A Starbucks latte in SF costs USD 5.88.

I don’t use Obsidian Publish, and I don’t need it. I use the Obsidian app for free, and I don’t need the Sync feature as it works fine with iCloud.

If at some point I need the publish feature, I consider the price that is less than two lattes per month a good deal given the zero cost of the app that I used for a long time.

that’s certainly a valid reasoning. someone else may well have an equally valid reason for choosing a different path.

It isn't your only option:

https://github.com/oleeskild/obsidian-digital-garden

https://github.com/jackyzha0/quartz

https://github.com/jonstodle/obsius-obsidian-plugin

https://github.com/yoursamlan/pubsidian

https://github.com/ppeetteerrs/obsidian-zola