also they seem to be purchasing the swans and other birds, but only hiring the human dancers and such for one performance only. I would think that you could make an arrangement to rent some swans, if you looked around, so it's not really a fair comparison of one performance versus unlimited ownership.

They seem to be hiring a dance company for just one performance.

I think 14carat gold plated rings can still be advertised as "gold rings." One of the properties of gold is that it can be hammered really thinly and still be useable, hence if you want to be cheap you just use a really thin layer. Edible gold leaf on desserts is a thing and actually isn't as expensive as you might guess due to the extreme thinness of the gold.

That's probably only on sitting days. Not sure how many there are but it would likely be under 100.