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The cost-benefit analysis that is going in the media questioning the use of expensive missiles to bring down cheap missiles and drones does not make sense. Such an analysis may be relevant in business but not in a war. It does not matter if the incoming threat is costing just a few thousand dollars, and you must counter it with a million-dollar missile. It is the potential damage it can cause and the weapon you have at your disposal counter it. This is like a leader should not be protected by spending huge sums of money since the bullet that can cause harm costs a dollar or two. Hopefully, the military leaders in charge are not bean counters. Also, Iran may want to show that there is a red line as brought out in your talks, but I am sure they did not launch 300 weapons to injure a girl. They definitely expected to create more havoc but did not succeed luckily for them as Israel would wreaked hell in retaliation.
Coming to the low-cost drones, this is a part of the never-ending offensive vs defensive weapons cycle that has been going on forever. The offensive weapon always has an advantage as it comes first (otherwise where is the need to develop a counter?) and destruction is always cheaper than construction. So, drones have the upper hand now, but they have less of that compared to what was the situation two years ago as many countermeasures have been developed. Once cheap counters like microwave or laser weapons are developed, they will not have this advantage and that is not far away. Also don’t forget that drones are very cheap but also very vulnerable. They might have been successful in the Ukraine war (at least initially) due to the lack of counters or incompetence but as one can see now, none penetrated the defense shield of Israel.
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