Expensive? Todays microcontrollers are actually quite cheap. And lots of them have nice flash memory, making them possible to reprogram without the need for any UV eraser. Some of them even allow reprogramming in the system (ISP) or by the running application (IAP).

The goal with a EEPROM is of course to be programmable in-circuit. In many situations - if you do need EEPROM - it is easier to get a chip with internal EEPROM.

The only bad thing (if it really is a bad thing) with modern chips is that they tend to not use 40-pin DIL but be surface-mounted. But instead, you can find lots of cheap evaluation boards with the chip already mounted.