It doesn’t feel like a scam. It IS a scam. You were able to get a 3 year valid one but now they reduced it to 1 year. If my permit is valid for 10 years, so should the IDP. But then it’d cost x10 if they were to keep the same profit. So suddenly asking for close to $200 will feel outrageous. Just shows how corruption can be worse than a monetary loss.
You don't even need it most of the time. Almost every country will just accept a driver's license from most other countries as long as it's fairly standard and has a section in English. I've driven in dozens of countries with my local driver's license.
Yeah, I don't bother any more, but it has happened a couple of times to me in Europe that a rental car company asked for it and then refused to rent without it. In both cases I just walked over to a different company's desk and they didn't ask.
Unfortunately I don’t live in the country my license was issued in, so until I get a local license (which takes some time) I don’t have much choice, since the alternative is flying half way around the world to get an IDP. The whole system is a bit flawed.
