Be careful buying anything cheap because it’s only a matter of time before they decide they need to make a profit.
It really is out of control though. I try to rein it in as much as I can. Switched 20+ Alexa’s to HomePods but even my damn ecobee doorbell wants a sub lol
homekit compatible doorbells like logitech work with no sub. unless you have over two cameras (i think) then you need a higher tier icloud storage account.