It says "over $100/m", but these addons are all $10-20 USD each, and it implies more than the list. With just a few of the common ones it's easy to reach $125/m and the approach seems to be to get all of them. Up to $200 is quite likely.

That would be 72k USD which is a salary. Admittedly not a software engineer salary, but a significantly above average US salary. Selling the idea of getting another employee is a big deal for most businesses of 30 people.

It's hard to see doubling OP's number and arguing against that instead of what they've actually said as anything but strawmanning.

Leave aside the fact that $72k is probably not actually paying for another salary with taxes and benefits.

I think most 30-person businesses would spend $72k in “R&D” if the promise of such investment is deemed worthy

36k in a small company is a non-trivial operating expense, esp. for hype-based tools that won't live there tomorrow.

like, it's a rounding error as IT budgets go, but throwing a bunch of money at something that's already considered dubious is silly. That's 36k in bonuses for Juniors, or a X-Mas party, licenses for software that you'll actually use.