I felt this way for awhile, but there are weeks where you just get multiple flats that even this 'trivial' cost is easiliy fixed with patches.

I'm pretty experienced at tube changes now (probably have had over 30 flats in the last 5 years) but I still encounter the following regularly:

- Repeat flats, often from a small metal shard left in the tire
- Repeat flats, sometimes from a pinch/twist in the tube when inflating
- Repeat flats, just due to dang bad luck

My flats seem to happen in clusters, like 2-4 in a single month, then zero for the rest of the year.

Those $6-7 tubes seem like a total waste when you quickly re-flat them. However with a patch, it's no big deal. Just wait til you've got 4-6 tubes with flats, and patch 'em all at once for $2. That'll save you like $24 for 15 minutes of work, and it's fun no less. That's pretty good return for any job. The more tubes you patch at once, the higher the monetary yield.

I do admit that when I go through no-flat times (I had nearly a year where I didn't flat once), I start questioning even spending time on a patch. I wouldn't patch if I only had 1-2 tubes to deal with. But when you get like 4+ accumulated, it makes a lot of sense.