You're right. Calibrations are not for you.
I don't care how much you paid for a unit - even if you got if free - every unit, OOB or years old, can be marvelously improved by calibrations. Without calibration, doesn't matter what you paid for something - you are not getting your money's worth out of it. If you paid a lot, you're REALLY not getting your money's worth. If you paid a little, you have a lot more to spend on calibrations than if you paid a lot.
Would you buy a Maserati or Lamborgini that you got an incredible deal on, like one fifth its value, and then not pay extra for the dealer prep and final tuneup once the unit arrived at the dealer, just because it was half the price of the incredibly marvelous deal you got? What kind of performance would you be settling for? Would it be worth even driving that kind of a car without having a high precision tuneup on it?
Without spending several hundred for a calibration on your several thousand dollar investment, if you are a videophile you are not getting your money's worth. Plain and simple.
Mr Bob