Yep it's quite true. If you are just going to host one or two things, you could get away with a Raspberry Pi, but I have about 40+ containers running, and I realise I'm on my 3rd or 4th iteration of hardware. I don't have anything fancy as my small form-factor server cannot even mount...
Beginners can recycle an old mini/micro PC. You can buy refurbished ones from computer recyclers for like $15.
At both ends of the spectrum you can save money. The people who don’t (like me) are not doing it for the goal of saving money.