OP definitely used $4,000 worth of expertise plus a decent amount of time, despite automating the process. It wouldn't have been crazy to spend $4,000 to have

OP definitely used $4,000 worth of expertise plus a decent amount of time, despite automating the process. It wouldn't have been crazy to spend $4,000 to have the professionals do it, so long as they produced a reasonably equivalent high-quality result.