To a degree yes, but not nearly as bad as other components right now. You can at the very least buy a single “small” HDD like 4TB for pretty cheap that is far more than what you’d get from big tech on an average storage plan.
This is subject to change but as of today, you can get this for cheap
bitwolf@sh.itjust.works 8 hours ago
I got started in high school, broke high school me shucked drives from used computers.
A lot of people throw away perfectly good computers. Or sell them for very cheap because they take up space.
Those reject computers, if you find the right one, could have 500gb-2gb ssds in them that are perfect for media server usage.