These things aren't that expensive: about $1m - $3m for a top of the line one, and cost about $20k/month to operate on top of that. Depending on what kind of MRI you want, you can pay less than $200k. You can find used/refurbished GE Signa LX 1.5T's for ~$100k for instance.
But let's assume you've got a million dollar top of the line model, the expected lifespan is 10 years, and you're using it 20 hours / day, then you need to account ~$100 per hour of usage. That's not a crazy amount in the medical world. Personnel costs of those operating / using it are going to outweigh the cost of the machine itself.
Costs vary hugely depending on machine spec and how it’s run. A gold plated set of contracts with specified uptime is not cheap, but it is easily a saving when you can’t bill thousands an hour due to an outage.
Spreading the cost over 10 years is a little misleading. Scanners can last 15 years without too much drama, but upgrades every 5 or so years which cost hundreds of thousands can be expected.
An outpatient scanner will not get 20 hours usage per day where I live, but a hospital one could.
Staff costs, as you note, are huge and dwarf the scanner costs over its lifetime. I wouldn’t be surprised if staffing was a 10x multiplier on scanner costs.
But let's assume you've got a million dollar top of the line model, the expected lifespan is 10 years, and you're using it 20 hours / day, then you need to account ~$100 per hour of usage. That's not a crazy amount in the medical world. Personnel costs of those operating / using it are going to outweigh the cost of the machine itself.