Are maintenance costs overblown in VHCOL area?

I am struggling to understand the maintenance costs when trying to decide whether i continue to buy vs rent in a VHCOL area. The typical “estimate” that people have quoted is that its roughly 1-4% per year of the cost of your house. But im really struggling to see that

My brother has owned 2 homes in the last 8years, and outside of the initial renovation costs afaik he has spend little to nothing repairing any additional for either of his houses, he takes care of his own lawn which is the one thing i hear people quoting a lot.

Even anecdotally , i’ve lived in the same rental house for the last 4 years, and the only repairs we’ve had was to replace a faucet that is $80 at best. I know my landlord pays for a landscaper for ~$200 a month so at best for the last 4 years hes spent $10k over 4 years?

So then how does a $1.4million dollar( the estimate of the rental house i live in) have a supposed $14k - $56k per year of repair costs? I get that if you have to repair a roof every 20 years it is a lot, but no way that $600k of supposed maintenance cost saved over 20years wouldnt cover that

Even google suggests that the average maintenance cost in bay area is $17k/year. So any long time home owners can shed some light on this?