Your examples are cases in which you know what the bill is going to be before placing your order. With LLMs, you're paying per output token, not per request, yet you don't get all the tokens.
replyWhen you hire lawyers or consultants you usually don’t know how many hours they’ll bill you. It will depend on developments in the case that you cannot in general predict. For example if the other side files a motion and your lawyer has to argue against it, they’ll bill you for it.
replySure you can set spending limits, just like you can make an account and give it a limited amount of credits.
Or a huge software company where you only get the end operating system, but none of its source code.
replyBuy the Neiman Marcus cookies and feel entitled to the recipe?
Lots of secret sauce in the world.