Best money I've put down in years" is a bold claim for a $140 plate. Most of that speed comes from the stretcher itself, not the extra piece. A guy on my crew swore by one, then we timed it on two 15x20 rooms and the difference was maybe ten minutes a room. Ten minutes. You'd make that back just by not driving across town for a coffee run. Plus the wide plate digs into cheap pad and cheap carpet way harder, so now you're fixing stretch marks on the next job. Half the time a pricey add-on feels great because you just spent the money and you want it to feel great.

Is it possible that fanbinding actually preserves more obscure fic than the original archives ever did, since those servers keep dying and the paper just sits there?

A $38 fee to learn something you couldve gotten from a free app or a notebook? lmao. The bank isnt your therapist or your budgeting coach, they just want the fee money. Stress eating is a pretty common thing, so im not surprised you saw the pattern, but giving the bank credit for that is like thanking a mugger for showing you where you left your wallet. Those reports are designed to keep you in the system, not to help you get out of it. Take the lesson and run, but dont act like the fee was some kind of favor.