have a hard time believing that AM receivers are that expensive for cars that it’s really worth the trade-of

Its not about the cost of the radio, the hardware for a digital and receiver at this point is pennies… The issue is electric and hybrid drivetrains generate a lot of very strong localized EMI from the motors and motor inverter drives, and AM is bad at rejecting it so it usually wipes out most stations. It gets really expensive trying to reduce or filter that out.