The cost of the ISS was not just the launches. The modules themselves were massively expensive to design, build, and test before they ever made it into a payloa

The cost of the ISS was not just the launches. The modules themselves were massively expensive to design, build, and test before they ever made it into a payload bay. For example, the Tranquility + Cupola modules together cost $400M just to build. This wouldn’t change that much just because the launch costs go down, even with newer tech (Bigelow modules would still cost on the order of $100M a pop). If you want to put humans in space for long periods of time without killing them, the things you put them into are going to be complex and expensive. To me it would make a lot more sense to boost the ISS to a higher orbit so future industry can repurpose the materials on it, rather than throw the entire thing away because it’s old.