Are most hi-end plugins a con?

I would like to hear opinions on this subject. Why? Because I went and purchased some top shelf expensive compressors, reverb and EQ plugins and when I upgraded my mac and they started causing high CPU issues I was so worried and then I replaced them with the stock free Pro Tools plugins and very easily replicated (to my ears) the exact same sounds.

So I am wondering does anyone else have the same experience? If this is true then a billion dollar business is basically a giant con?

DAW: Pro Tools studio 2020.12

Genre: Rock/pop music (real drums, tube amps with decent mics and decent outboard mic pres)

Plugins that to me seem just as good as expensive paid plugins: Avid AIR Reverb, Dyn3 compressor, 7 band EQ etc.