That 's the point, you are willing to sacrifice the cost of the bait in order to get anywhere from 1 to like you said, 10-12 fish, to you and to me they are well worth the investment, to other people either because they don 't have dough to purchase them or that have the opinion that the cost is too high or both they are not worth the investment, it 's either their pocket or their mentality, if you are in that group then soft plastic swimbaits are not for you, get something more durable like a hard swimbait, it 's going to cost you but it 's going to last a lot more.
Don 't know about pike and fish like that, but gar, man those things are mean, they don 't puncture and rip the bait, they slice it in half, they 've got more and sharper teeth, pretty much like an electric knife with attitude. :-X
I would have to agree, it depends on how much you're willing to spend. Man gar sounds like an awesome fight...I just came back from the Caribbean and had a barracuda tear up a top-water bait; the teeth on those fish are menacing.