I think it just comes down to economics. For the cost of a developer day-rate you can buy extremely powerful hardware. So which resource do you want to conserve

I think it just comes down to economics. For the cost of a developer day-rate you can buy extremely powerful hardware. So which resource do you want to conserve - your developer time or your hardware resources? Especially the fact that the “hardware resources” isn’t even your cost it’s your customers cost.