Also, I don’t buy the “academic quality things should be incredibly expensive because its meant for scholars and university libraries” argument.

You don't have to buy it, because I didn't use the argument and never would.

It cost less to update a database or serve thousands of visitors than you might think especially for simple database lookups sent through https.

If you think OED's expenses can be boiled down to updating the database and keeping the site online, it means you still don't understand what OED is and how it is produced.

I get the impression you're primarily looking to be infuriated (perhaps appropriate given the community, but still) rather than to talk about this seriously.