If anyone has looked at the cost of gas or experienced the change in people's schedules as they get jobs, move around, have kids etc... they will realize that a one time cost per person of less than $50 is not a lot.
I bought FG when it first came out (I might have been the first purchaser here on enworld

) and I have never paid anything for all the gaming I've done with it since.
Yes maptool is free but I find it clunky. Fantasy grounds is elegant with a really natural user interface. On top of that, it really seems to be improving a lot recently.
Cost to me is now well under 0.25 an hour.
I can't drive to see all the players I find in a week, much less an evening. Even my close friends an hour away would cost $10+ in gas on an evening and I'd be spending 2 hours in transit. I get stuff done around the house, (Laundry etc) and I'm here for phone calls. My wife is ok with me giving 4 hours on an evening to gaming because its mostly just 4 hours.
I recommend Fantasy Grounds and VTTs to anyone who finds face to face difficult. If its a one time cost don't let it stop you from picking the interface you like. I don't begrudge a company a couple of bucks when they wrote the software, don't charge by the hour, and give you support.
Maptool is a great project too. I just like FG better. I haven't tried any other VTTs.
I think its alarmist and unfair to post group costs without talking per person cost. If your game is not worth 40 bucks to playDM then you've certainly never actually bought many books and don't spend anything to get to sessions.
Buy a setup to let you game and DM (for FG that's 39.95 USD) you're done. The other players will have to pony up as well.
If you want to carry the costs for your players, you can make other choices (In FG a license that lets people join without a paid license is 149.95 USD). I don't really understand this as I've always let players buy their own books, snacks, dice etc.... If your players aren't into the game enough to spend forty bucks they're likely not very interested.
Unlike any of the bazillion other game products I have, I use my VTT every single game. It saves me money and makes the game possible.
I'm not slamming any other program. I don't get anything for this.
I just hate hearing the implication that this is somehow expensive when it has saved me so much money. I've had games with people all over the world - time zone is actually an issue. It's the biggest, cheapest, improvement I've made to gaming.
Sigurd