It depends more on the volume, the frequency of changes and the complexity of implementation. You can have a robust solution for a few bucks infra cost, if those parameters are small.
Backup recovery in a small, simple, robust system is very rare. Automated recovery is complex and there are quite a bunch of gotchas and perhaps project specific things to take into account.
But automated backups are typically straightforward. You need to know when and how to do them and where to put them.
I think there are tons of reasons to pay for an managed database if you need it. But it is not a baseline requirement for many projects.