I think the logic is that the Web API's are for apps doing things you would otherwise do in SAP's own GUI.

But i agree, SAP is not for those who are sensitive to license prices. Most commonly the solution is a third-party custom built software, that interfaces the data into the back-end SAP system.

The OP's comment was about scraping data from pages generated from SAP Web apps. I tried to point out that it make little sense, as there are proper ways of interfacing data (even over HTTP).