I can't imagine working for a company that wouldn't shell out cash within reason for an IDE that I was comfortable with. What's a few grand in the grand scheme of employee-related costs? Currently I work with an IDE that costs $10k, not because I asked for it but it is the only choice for the proprietary ETL solution that we use. But certainly I don't get resistance when my license is up for renewal...

Software developers really have it easy. Generally speaking we get free laptops, free software, free coffee, everything we need to do our jobs, and the guys who fix our cars have a $1000/month Snap-On tools bill that they pay out of their own pockets.