Per-seat pricing looks simple on a pricing page: one number, times your headcount. It's less simple once you're the one paying it.
Adding a tenth teammate costs the same as adding your first, whether or not that person spends five minutes a day in the tool or five hours.
Want to give a contractor or a part-timer access for one project? That's a full seat, same price as your most active user.
A team running six SaaS tools at $20-50/seat/month isn't paying $20-50 -- they're paying that six times over, per person, every month.
The alternative isn't 'free' -- someone always pays for the software you use. It's pricing that scales with your account, not with every person you decide to trust with access.