Making RAW Workflow Affordable on a Low Budget: Where to Prioritize?

Hey everyone, Omar here, working a lot of Steadicam gigs lately. I've been diving deep into RAW workflows, especially thinking about future projects where I'd like to push the image quality. But after crunching numbers based on various discussions, the estimated additional costs for storage, processing power, and specialized software seem to easily hit $70k+ for a serious RAW pipeline. This feels pretty out of reach for truly low-budget narrative stuff I work on, often shooting with a KOMODO or a C70.

My question is, for those of you who've successfully implemented RAW on a shoe-string budget, how did you realistically manage? What are the absolute critical corners that cannot be cut if you're aiming for a RAW workflow, and conversely, what areas did you find you could economize without totally compromising the benefits? I'm trying to figure out a path that isn't just a pipe dream.