I think for coffee in particular the GP is missing that a lot of people are buying lattes every other day for 5$+. In a year that's +900$ which is definitely enough to get excellent gear.
My mignon grinder and rancilio silvia set me back 1000$, but I have been using them daily for 4 years to make lattes for my partner and I. That's over 2920 lattes at an average of 0.34$ each!
Are you ignoring the cost of coffee and milk? Even modestly priced coffee ($14/12oz) ends with each shot being roughly $0.75 in just ground coffee. No idea what milk costs for you since pricing can be so variable, but in actual raw components you can quickly get above $1 purely in cost of goods. Even easier if you're drinking expensive or special stuff. Expensive coffee truly can have raw material cost exceeding $4/cup, although it would be unusual to use that in a latte.
