That is my philosophy. Give the snake what it wants, not what you think it wants or what you want to give it. 50 cents a feeding comes out to what? $26 a year? That's a pretty trivial amount, IMO.
Sometimes I'm amazed when I figure out something about my snake. When I got my little boa, he never used his hide. But he would spend a lot of time in the corner directly behind the hide. I figured, okay, my boa is one of those odd ones that has no need for hides. Until one day I was cleaning his cage and on a whim, flipped his hide around so the entrance faced that corner. The next day, he was in the hide. I'm like duh.
And my corns, I took their hides out cause they'd rather burrow under the layers of paper. If that's what makes them happy, that's fine with me.
But food. Food's another story. I feed them what they want to eat. I'd rather have them eating than constantly futzing and worrying about it.
Do what works. Works for me, works for my snakes.