$350 was a good deal! I have heard of many multiples of that. The government isn't making any real money off that and they are allocating valuable organizational resources towards it. While it does seem to be a governmental obligation to relocate those who are stranded abroad, I have seen a number of cases where governmental warning were ignored until it was too late and then some irresponsible travelers started with the "woe is me! mayday!" campaigns on social media. Then governments had to spend ludicrous amounts of money to collect these people from their backpacking holidays.

I personally was abroad when the outbreak started, watched how things were going down on the media, made a judgement call and took a timely flight home. I don't see anyone else couldn't have done the same thing.