Would not make sense to purchase a device of $60 - $200 price range if storing only a couple bucks on it.
It depends. Are those couple of bucks all that you will ever store on it? I think most people have plans to increase their crypto stash with time. So even if you start of with owning only $10 worth of bitcoin, it does make sense to purchase a hardware wallet straight away if that amount will increase by another $X amount after every week/paycheck, etc.
I agree with you that it wouldn't make sense storing a tiny amount which is smaller than the value of the device if you aren't going to add more to it. In that case, I would look for a suitable non-custodial and open-source mobile or software wallet depending on which of my devices (PC or phone) I trust more to be secure and malware-free.