Yeah it's pretty great how the "cost" of things go up but the folks involved in the actual production of said goods are not getting paid more, makes one wonder....
I've personally been using Element and love it. I have a private matrix server for my family to use. Some of the members of the family have also loved FluffyChat.
I'm not disagreeing here with your sentiment, but I don't think comparing it to the cost of a AAA game matters. I'm sure you'll spend more time in Lemmy over the course of a lifetime than on one game.
I've not had either of those issues on my laptop, using teams through Firefox. I wonder if there is something else going on there.