The “broadcast yourself” bit was meant more like “just turn on your webcam and start filming stuff”.
I have no idea about production cost, but 3500€ sounds like a lot. Still, the days of “broadcast yourself” are clearly over (just look at the production value of philosophy tube, not to mention MrBeast). Unfortunately, cooking videos are notoriously demanding videos, at least when it comes to lighting and camera, etc. It’s really easy to make food look gross on camera.
RA3 brought us Soviet Russian Tim Curry. Nothing has to be redeemed, fight me.