It’s easy to throw around money if it’s not yours and that’s the path of least resistance. I’ve worked at smaller corporate gigs, medium sized brands, and start-up brands (working on launching my own right now), and can for sure say that there is more than one way to achieve a similar result.
I have no issues with hiring students. I have no issue with hiring professionals. I do think you get what you pay for. You need to clearly weigh your needs, your ability to manage/frame the project, your timelines, and the cost/benefit of the objectives. Some projects may be done at 1/4 the cost and good enough to not make a difference, others might be under a time pressure so you have no margin of error to experiment or try out a new resource.
…spending money because other people are spending money isn’t always the best answer nor does it always get you the best results though, in my experience. If you want to run with the big dogs you can’t beat them by trying to outspend them…
R