"I'm at a point now that I don't need to win at any cost to my time and household budget."

I don't either. I carefully budget the amount of weekends I do each year to assure that I can reasonably afford what I do. I'm a racer that feels like if I can't be competitive, I won't even load the car and go. So I only do what the budget allows me to do competitively.

"I just don't believe a $600- set of one race weekend tires have any place in IT racing."

I don't either. I know some of you guys disagree, but I don't see a significant falloff on the Hoosiers until about heat cycle number 8. So thats 4 good qualify/race out of each set of tires. I stretch it to at least 2 more after that.

"but what would you do when your stiff competition showed up on new rubber for every race? You only use the Hoosiers because you need to, to be competitive. You'd also have to (with the same goals) if everyone else showed up on new rubber every time too.

Excellent point. And you're correct, there are racers out there who do this. Mostly in ITS and SM from what I've seen.
This is a big reason I race in ITC. I used to have an Integra GSR and the costs to be competitive in it were just too high. I COULD afford it, I just didn't want to.
Nobody shows up for every race with new tires in ITC. Theres no data acquisition, no $3000 dampers, and no motors that are freshened every 2 to 3 weekends. Folks show up with new rubber for the ARRC, and thats about it.

Scott, who bought 8 new Hoosiers last spring and is still competitively racing on them (but they are admittedly about dead).