I got hit by this scam a few years ago. My wife called the first number in google and they said for $50 they could come open my front door. The guy gets there and says "oh these locks are too complicated I need to drill it out and it'll be $350". I told him I'd give him $50 cash under the table and he could tell his boss I told him to go fuck himself. He drilled the lock which spurred my wonder of how hard it was to actually pick a simple residential lock.
I bought a lockpicking kit, a new lock and learned that even somebody with little skill and some practice could have picked that lock in 10-15 minutes. It would seem they drill all locks out regardless of difficulty to eliminate any required skillset.
Recently my car battery died on a side-street without much through-traffic. No one else I know has a car (I live in NYC), so I had to call someone to jump it for me. It cost $75.
The guy used a portable jump-starter, which I'd never seen before. So I looked it up when I got home, and bought it on Amazon for ~100 bucks. When my battery died again, I jumped it myself and I'm now just one jump away from 'saving' money.
I guess this is a roundabout way of saying all these services (like locksmiths, car-jumpers, etc) can be avoided with minimal effort and a little bit of know-how. There is something rewarding about being self-sufficient in that way.
It's not the difficulty of the lock but just the fact that it's there as a deterrent. If someone really wants to get into your home they'd break a window or kick down the door. The lock is mostly for crimes of opportunity and personal reassurance.
It's faster to just drill out the lock. A worker can handle more clients per day that way. Also, they get to sell you a new lock, and install it too. It makes perfect rational sense from the locksmith's point of view.
I bought a lockpicking kit, a new lock and learned that even somebody with little skill and some practice could have picked that lock in 10-15 minutes. It would seem they drill all locks out regardless of difficulty to eliminate any required skillset.