I meant that money wise. I don't care if a 2$ proto board gets damaged due to ESD. Sure it can be a pain in the ass to figure out why it is not working properly
That time could be spent so much better. The issue with ESD damage is this: it comes in totally unexpected ways. It's not that your $10 devboard just dies and you get a new one. Instead, for example, a microcontroller might work perfectly for a week, and out of blue some ADC reference voltage or brown-out detector limit shifts by 0.5V and now you are getting spurious resets in interaction of your code. Then you can waste days wondering what's wrong with your code, and as a beginner, you haven't figured out effective ways of doing that (say, revision control system + binary search of changes).
This randomness of problems is why you can see people make comments like this: "I can't recall something failing on me due to ESD". This is logically obvious, because knowing something failed
due to ESD requires sophisticated lab with equipment like electron microscope. Not going to happen anywhere else except component manufacturers if you are buying in millions and have problems and get the manufacturer to investigate. Instead, we all have random problems that remain mystery.
For same reason, avoid counterfeit eBay/Aliexpress components, try to follow datasheet advice on bypass caps etc. These are surprising time wasters, and as a beginner, mistakes where you can see the cause and effect are good for learning, but totally random-looking problems are not.
The silver lining is, decent level of ESD protection can be had easily. Grounded ESD mat is excellent, but if you can't afford it (~$20), just remove that fluffy carpet from your lab floor and make it a habit to touch some grounded metal (e.g., oscillosscope BNC posts) when you sit down to work, and every now and then.