An economist saying a national-security measure costs this much is fine. Where it goes off the rails is in turning costs into damnation without accounting for what one gets in return. In an attention-driven media environment, that sells.

France could do it as it is a rich and big country but smaller countries do not have a viable choice. This reasoning could have been applied to France too in another universe.

It's a balance impossible to totally tilt one way or another.

So no amount of extra information could help when it's matter of opinion at the end of the day