> But why is the cost never discussed or disclosed in these conversations?

And not just the monetary cost of accessing the tools, but the amount of time it takes to actually get good results out. I strongly suspect that even though it feels more productive, in many cases things just take longer than they would if done manually.

I think there are really good uses for LLMs, but I also think that people are likely using them in ways that feel useful, but end up being more costly than not.