Meetup doesn’t “run” these. You’re just picking boring ones. The only meetup I attend is a bunch of random motorcyclists who go up the coast highway every week. Never felt bored.
They don't run them, but it's sort of intrinsic to their platform that low-budget meetups can't access it, and those can be some of the best because they don't have to answer to sponsors.
I run a "meetup" that is not on Meetup, in part because of the cost (I'm fortunate that in a technical niche community in NYC, word of mouth spreads fast).
