Well, keep in mind that there's benefit's to steem-engine not being based on steem too. We're able to fork our code without a need for a hardfork. We can also do things faster cause it's all through js/jsnode rather than C++.
I understand it would be more convenient if it was cheaper, but we need partnership goes both way. We need funding to continue developing. These things take devs and servers.
Maybe someone else will figure out how to do what we're doing cheaper... I doubt they'll figure it out, and I doubt it'll be cheaper. I did some back of the envelope math and we're 75% cheaper than running your own fork of steem because of witness payouts you'd have to do. So, I don't feel that bad.
If you're stuck on technical questions message me in Discord and I'm happy to try to help you get it right.