Of the podcasts I listen to many don’t have a monetization model at all, some are ads only, and others have patreons, or their own online storefronts. Considering all the time it would take to pay them all individually, and add their feeds to my app, and this starts to sound like a major chore. Between the time, and the cost you noted, directly supporting podcasts at this time is pretty broken for anyone that listens to more than a few podcasts.