Ink is a thing that costs way too much. It seems pretty obvious that it is artificially expensive, and also that HP does their best to keep the prices high. But the printer won't work without it, so there really isn't much choice. Sure, one can gamble on refills, but having already ruined one perfectly good printer with refills, I would need a good reason to trust the re-filler.
Prints with this ink do look good, although it is not as water-resistant as some. But again, if you one has a printer that requires this ink, it doesn't really matter, because this is the ink that one must use.