You should be able to see when someone is gaslighting you. They charge because they want and can. The above justification might apply to some of their standard

You should be able to see when someone is gaslighting you. They charge because they want and can. The above justification might apply to some of their standards but certainly not to PDF. PDF was developed by Adobe. They make lots money selling PDF tools and licensing PDF software. PDF didn't have to be a standard. It could be a proprietary format. Adobe wanted the adoption of PDF so they made PDF a standards so that they can sell more PDF tools. It didn't have to an ISO standard. Adobe could have released it as an open spec with some sort of permissive license. Adobe wanted it to be ISO standard to piggy back on "respectability" of International Standards Organization, to buy the impression that it's an open standard. But ISO makes money by selling standards so we ended up in this situation when the spec for "open" standard that Adobe wants to be adapted costs $100+ to buy. I guess Adobe at some point figured out this is stupid and made the spec available for free.