No real golfer ever buys golf balls.
Hmmm, guess I'm not a real golfer then by your logic. I think you gotta consider that there are two types of golfers. Those whose directional control abilities allow them to be a net finder of balls, and those who abilities cause them to be a net loser of balls.
In international trade terms, I am China (a net exporter) and you are the US (a net importer) And I can hit the quite quite far and quite off the mark on occasion so the fact that a Pro V1x will last years is irrelevant as some of my shots end up in spots where no human being will walk for at least the next 1000 years
Back to international trade terms, it is as if a container ship hits an iceberg or a eastern hemisphere version of the Bermuda triangle somewhere between Beijing and Los Angeles and sinks to the bottom of the Pacific never to be seen again.
Couple that with the fact that unless you play a high end course often where everyone buys $20 sleeves of Pro Vs in the pro shop before teeing off and at the turn, that even when us net losers are finding balls while looking for our own we are finding crap balls like Nike Power Distance Super Far (there really is a ball with a name something like that, I can find you some if you want to play them)
To answer the original question of the thread, being able to fish my ball out of the hazard only takes sting out of it if I'm having a crappy scoring day. Its sort of a "at least I got the damn ball back after another terrible shot" consolation prize. If I'm playing well and I suddenly hit a stupid shot I might be so mad I won't even look for it even if I could fish it out in two seconds.