So, the outfitter guys charging you $12K are typically going to provide you with lodging on each side of the hunt, make you breakfast, a ride to the airport/cargo and around town, gear rental included, and a location to hunt. Alternatively, you can find a pilot with knowledge of an area that can give you a place to hunt and you may have to pay for an uber, a couple nights in a hotel, and a little extra in fees to bring your own gear for probably under $4K. Neither of them are going to act as a guide and call a moose in for you, but you will probably get a "the moose like to move through path X and like to bed in location Y". There are outfits charging the $12K that have documented hunter success rates greater than 90% and you're probably looking more realistically at 50% with the later. Either way, I wouldn't plan around expecting to shoot a moose.
First time I hunted moose in AK about a decade ago, I called literally everyone. Hundreds and hundreds of hours looking at data, reports, population estimates, and talking to pilots. I talked to so many people that I eventually found a guy that didn't even advertise hunt drop offs but was legal to do the job. It came down to two guys going once every few years each paying one of the outfitters charging $8K at the time for a bit higher success rate or pay a pilot about $2K each and go every year and probably one of us shoots a moose every year. It was an easy choice for us, we wanted to hunt. And we shot moose each year we went that route. If you're going to go once and money is tight, give yourself a 5 year plan and save up for one of the guys with a higher success rate and drop maybe $15K-$20K on a hunt in 2028. Or you can go with guy B 3 times in that time frame for about the same price.
I do go with a guy that owns one of the all-inclusive outfits now, but that's mainly because of chance relationships I've built. It is really nice sending out a bit of gear a week before the hunt and just showing up and going to my warm room then waking up and essentially eating breakfast and put on my waders and step on a plane. But there is no advantage as far as the hunt is concerned other than he happens to operate in a very high-density moose area. The extra money he charges isn't because his success rate it high, it's for the types of planes he uses, the distance to hunting grounds, extensive scouting hours, gear rental, and the lodging/transportation/food/personnel he provides to make it all run smoothly. His high success rate is a reflection of how he chooses to run his business rather than his price being a reflection of his success rate.
