It's curious that anyone who doesn't join the RF knocking group is referred to as fawning, or 'worshipping at their feet'. Nope, not at all so far as I'm concerned and I haven't seen other posters doing that.
Me neither Iam64 - and I am 100% certain that if we sent the RF into retirement and had an elected Head of State, it would cost twice as much and the electorate would be grumbling even more.
There are concerns about the costs of security surrounding the RF and the royal wedding security costs - security was there to protect the public too.
When The Donald comes on his State Visit - I suppose there will be no grumbles about the security costs for that because he is an elected Head of State, therefore that's all OK.
I think they do a difficult and probably, at times, boring job and there must be a demand for their presence at events of all kinds, otherwise royals such as Edward, Anne etc would not be so busy.
As for 'costing the taxpayer so much' - there is a budget, decided by Parliament, and they have to work within that. Expensive flights would have to come out of that budget which means less money in the pot for another royal duty.
It is a finite, not limitless, amount