Official visits are not inexpensive. The recruit and his parents are in a hotel for two nights and then there is the accompanying dinners and general entertainment. Of course, Akron is not spending what the average P5 does on an official visit, let alone Texas which supposedly spent $350,000 on 8 recruits the weekend they hosted Arch Manning (I’m not sure how that was even possible, but that was the rumor ).
The official visit is probably still more important at the G5 level now than at the P5 where NIL is driving more decisions for the skill positions.