According to whom or what data exactly?
AI operators are clearly well-funded operations and the amount of electricity and CPU power is negligible. Software like Anubis and nearly all its identical predecessors grant you access after a single "proof". So you then have free reign to scrape the whole site.
The best physical analogy are those shopping cart things where you have to insert a quarter to unlock the cart, and you presumably get it back when you return the cart.
The group of people this doesn't affect are the well-funded, a quarter is a small price to pay for leaving your cart in the middle of the parking lot.
Those that suffer the most are the ones that can't find a quarter in the cupholder so you're stuck filling your arms with groceries.
Would you be richer if they didn't charge you a quarter? (For these anti-bot tools you're paying the electric company, not the site owner.). Maybe. But if you're Scrooge McDuck who is counting?
