I agree, gardening from an economic status is mostly a negative. The reason we still do it, is the flavors can not be matched from store bought, gardening is cheap therapy, we enjoy canning.
We live in a poor place for a garden and the critters like what we produce. So, we plant onions and potatoes in the garden and other things in buckets near the house.
New place/sandy soil. So we put in raised beds and a 7 ft fence that so far has deterred the deer/rabbits. The deer come by every morning, but ignore the garden.
And I discovered something: hardly any weeds in a raised bed! Could be because we live in an oak & pine barren and there simply isn’t a lot of undergrowth (weeds/grasses) in this Ice Age lake bottom.
Soil is expensive this 1st year, but all we need to do in future is amend. And, we’re old, so really, it’s just tomatoes, some peppers, some sweet corn and some lettuce.
Therapeutic and tasty, as you say.