Gatorboard is expensive, and so are a lot of other tools and consumables. But time is expensive too. If using a particular technique is faster than some other technique, you most of the time will be better off with the faster but more expensive method. I can Gator mount a lot of big canvases in an hour, and I can build very attractive looking frames pretty quick, too.
What my frames look like is a 3 to 4.5" wide moulding surrounding a coated canvas print. No glazing, no liners, no mattes. Just classic, canvas + frame presentation in the grand style. The back of the frames looks like a big, black piece of Gator held in position by some Fletcher Points (which are like flat nails), plus there's a wire loop for 2-point, sideways figure 8 hanging, and some instructions as to how to do that. I don't bother with backing and nobody seems to mind, it's a non issue. The print is hermetically sealed between coating on the front and glue + Gator on the back...don't need no stinkin' cover!
There are other reasons I use Gator, such as arthritic hands. And there are logistic advantages of accumulating a back log of Gator mounted, but unframed prints which means I am never more than an hour from slapping one of those mounted prints into a quickly completed frame and taking it down to a gallery as an instant replacement. The main advantage is, it's easier to store flat Gator than framed pieces.
My most usual parting of Gator is 2, 21 x about 60" prints, plus one roughly 24 by about 43" print per sheet, which works out to an average of $14 per piece for the Gator. Not bad, really, considering time to mount is no more than a few minutes. That formula also makes very optimal use of a single, 8 foot long length of 44" canvas, which nicely fits the coroplast sheet I use as a coating backing, and which can be in one piece be applied to the Gator, yielding three mounted prints in one step. So I'm near 100% optimal use of time materials with that particular formula, and I'm way ahead on efficiency. It's all about efficiency, even with art. Waste not, wan't not. Anybody doing it the old fashioned can not compete.