One of the previous houses I lived in was just plasterboard which was taped and filled over and painted. Cheap, easy and quick. A pro could do a whole room and have it ready to paint in under 3 days, that would t be 3 full days either, you have to wait 24 hours for the Easy Fill to dry and you need to do 2 layers.
Plasterboard is probably the cheapest material you can use which is why it’s so prevalent these days. That said if you are doing a basement there are lots of considerations you need to think about to keep it both warm and prevent damp.
You can do an entire house in that time. A mate of my brothers does it for a job, and they just bring in huge boards, fire in a few screws and all boards and ceilings can be done in a day. A little prep after that to make it ready for painting, but the transformation from brickwork/stud partitions to having plasterboard all over is extremely quick.
And as you've said, it's extremely cheap. I know he's saving up to buy a place as a "dooer-upper", and has said rather than faffing around trying to take off wallpaper, or spend time filling/sanding holes in the plaster, he's just going to spend a day ripping it all out back to brick, and then another day putting plasterboards in. 2 days to have smooth surfaces in every room.
) was quite a shift, even despite the huge benefit of there being a lot less water to dry out prior to decorating.