Passport proper is still kinda expensive, but you can get a passport card for $65 for a first-time applicant. Good for a decade, Real ID compliant, works for all US land border crossings and domestic flights. That's not exactly cheap, but it's not that much more than a License in California.
yukichigai
whereas previously all states kinda did their own thing
This can't be emphasized enough. Different states had (and still have) wildly different standards for what is required to get a basic Driver's License or ID Card. Making a unified standard needed to happen, even if the way Real ID was implemented was... let's say "problematic".
AFAIK you can still get a non-Real ID compliant license in almost every state, though for some the difference in documentation requirements are all but nonexistent. Here in Nevada the only difference in required documents is that you can't use a Prison Identification Card to get a Real ID.
I love how the UK's supposedly left leadership aggressively, insistently opened with "let's cut off the heating for old people in winter" and kept doubling down on it.
Unfortunately, Sony seems to be really hostile towards allowing most any video player apps on the PS5. They specifically went out of their way to remove DLNA support, and they only just allowed a DLNA-enabled video player on the store 7 months ago... and it's subscription based.
I was listening to a Jim Gaffigan bit he wrote during the first Trump admin which is even more true these days. Short version, he compares having Trump as President to having a parent who's a raging alcoholic: what he does isn't directly your fault but you still know you should apologize.