Just as likely as the cost was the constraint of occupying Yankee armies during Reconstruction who probably didn't 'coition' to seeing statues honoring their recent vanquished adversaries.

Regardless of the intent of the memorials the subsequent 150 years of Jim Crow and de jure segregation have lent a different connotation to those memorials in the eyes of significant numbers of citizens in those States.

And as I pointed out, it's not the Feds taking down those statues.
Are the States not responsible for representing ALL of their citizens?

The Hitler analogy is overdrawn, inappropriate. But the thread of racism intrinsic to the 'cause', it's persistence, is a fact.

"..what about the millions who have nothing more sinister in mind than to preserve and honor and memory of Great, Great, Great, Grandpa Jones? I think they also are deserving of consideration and respect."

Yeah, no, you overstate the numbers of "Great, Great, Great, Grandpa Jones' living descendants who need those memorials.

History books, albums, military cemeteries, street and building names should suffice as a compromise.