I don't think they mean "monetarily". But once you have some reasonable parity you can implement your own features/workflow as you want them and not be reliant on Descript.

The context is i.r.t. the monthly cost and the cost of one's time, which has a monetary value, as well as the cost of tokens. So I think it's rightful to assume the topic is of a monetary pay off.

Yeah, it's not so much about money, or any sort of monetary "payoff" - it's about the features that are not available that you now have the ability to extend. Believe it or not, not everything is about money!