You can get by pretty well with the ~$20/month plans for either Claude or Gemini. You don't need to be doing the $200/month ones just to get a sense of how they work.

Again, not everyone can afford it, and it becomes a hurdle. Computers are acquirable, but 20$ extra a month might not be.

And yes, that plan can get you started, but when I tested it, I managed to get 1 task done, before having to wait 4 hours.