Then you are going to the wrong places.
Like, here's an example. All four front ball joints on a 2007-2019 Jeep Wrangler is a $500 job, that is if everything comes apart easily. In the case of my mom's Jeep, I broke a ball joint press tool trying to get it apart, so I buttoned it back up and she took it to a well known shop who charged her $200.
A dealer probably would have charged $1200 and "found other things wrong"