I don't think we are arguing about the same scenario at all.
Here is an example of what I have in mind:
- I work as a freelancer on a customers project.
- In my computer I have an 128G NVME (15$) which is seperate from my OS where I put the data the customer entrusted me with and the project files
- After the project, I take that NVME out, put it in a box on a shelf and buy a new one (15$) for the next project
- Some time after project completion, I can either trash the drives or send them in bulk to some data erasure service, or leave them on my shelf for ever.
As opposed to
- After the project, I take that NVME-1 out, put it in a box on a shelf and buy a new one for the next project (NVME-2)
- for the project after that, I again take out NVME-2 and put it on a sheld, I get NVME-1 from my shelf, put it in, run secure erase for multiple hours before I can start working on the next project.
My argument is, that the cost of the first process is negligible compared to the effort and hassle of the second process, for a freelancer that earns over 6x the cost of such drive per hour.
The state of mind depends on sensory input.