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Printer ink isn't the most expensive fluid, it just looks that way, because printer cartridges are unnecessarily expensive and underfilled. I don't know how your guests intend to explain how we got to absurdly expensive cartridges that are nearly impossible to refill functionally, but I know why.

It started with consumers running ink dry, ruining print heads, leading to lots of warranty claims. Moving the heads into the cartridge increased costs, but solved the warranty claim issue. Next was the rise of 'smart' cartridges with the ability to detect level and mark itself 'empty'.

Resetting that required proprietary software. This protected the profit center the cartridge had long ago become. Now that the cartridge can avert running dead dry, or detect if an ink tank is nearing empty, there's no reason the heads couldn't be part of the printer again, as with tank fed models.