I'm the not expensive guy and in relative terms flying gliders is not expensive. Do you know any horse people? Lots of horses around and many private owners spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on equestrian activity and there are orders of magnitude more horse people than glider pilots. Youth hockey is more expensive than learning to fly gliders. Know any sailboat people. Ask them how much cash the hole in the water takes to fill up. Lots of boats costing the same as a mid performance glider are on the water. Cost is a perceived barrier to entry.

As for allowing the insurance company to carry the financial risk. That's what it's for. I'm not advocating reckless flying. I am saying the insurance covers you financially on your investment so if you orang the thing you are not out the whole thing.

The drag if dinging a ship is the inconvenience of it and not necessarily the loss of cash. Most pilots who damage a glider set over the money pretty fast but not having convenient access to their toy is the painful part. We can make more money but time is gone once spent. We are never getting the summer back we lost when we damage a glider. We do recover the cash to have another go.