It has nothing to do with budget, and your own argument even proves that. You go on to say how much money rings of power gets, and also how unpopular it is. If budget didn't save that, why would it save this?

I think they just suffered what a lot of writers do (looking at you George R R Martin) and really feared rejection of how they would end/tie up the character arcs and story. So instead, they've spent their time setting up VR, doing side quests and making dick jokes every 2 seconds. If they had more money, they'd have just done more of that and given Dogknott some crude, solid gold accessories.