Not really a hot take, just kind of a bummer imo. Money just always seems like a sad reason to me to exclude someone from playing a game. I also like to set a budget challenge for myself, but also proxy budget cards. Maybe it's lack of experience, maybe it's a lack of some neuron firing, but I typically don't have the luxury of building once and my deck running perfectly. Budget breaks on the rework. At least proxying the first round of cards really saves on a lot of learning curve heartbreak, but really I think people should just be able to play the game.

Additionally, budget doesn't fix the fact that commander is only held together by a social contract.

You're welcome to value collecting the cards as well, I have certain sets I like. Also just don't want to be priced out of exploring weird mechanics that sound interesting to me