Astronomer's lament: Satellite megaconstellations are ruining space exploration
theconversation.com
theconversation.com
The cost of Webb wasn't the launch but the telescope itself. Folding it up to fit in rocket cost a lot extra but it would still have cost billions. The Hubble-sized Nancy Roman telescope, with much gifted by NRO, is going to cost $3 billion. The extremely large telescopes being built on the ground are almost as expensive.
It might be possible to build and launch a bunch of say 1m telescopes cheaply. But "someone" would need to fund it since it isn't something that company would do.