Why is data recovery so expensive?

Finding valid data on a well-used hard-drive (even one in good working order) is a bit like trying to find a diamond ring in a dumpster full of restaurant trash.

The first question is "Does the data I'm looking for even exist on this drive now?". (Maybe it did in the past before the drive died, but does it now?)

It's more affordable for you to do the looking yourself, of course. But that might entail sourcing replacement components for the damaged hard drive.

But whether you do the looking, or get somebody else to do the looking, there will be much time involved. And time is money.

Look into a USB "hard drive toaster" and ddrescue.

I've had success recovering from a failed drive. ddrescue will try to copy block by block (like the dd command) but will deal with bad disks by retrying infinitely, and keeping a log of blocks successfully copied.

In my experience, if you can get the drive to appear in the OS, ddrescue can (eventually) get most or all of the data back.

And if it's not being seen by the OS, search for the hard drive freezer trick

Usually when a hard drive fails in a way that can't be fixed with software most of the platters are OK but there are some bad parts such as the logic board, actuators to move the head, etc.

To fix a drive like that you usually buy two spare drives of the same type of the original. You transplant the platters from the failed drive to one of the good drives, then you copy the content to the other spare.

There is a high variance in how much effort it takes so it's the kind of thing that people like to pay for with insurance.