This sort of dynamic happens in smaller companies, too. And it isn't entirely on the company. I've been through similar sort of situations, for example consider some sort of SaaS service that costs $5k/year. I have to:
- Fill out some form to get one of their salespeople to contact me.
- Find a time to meet with them that works for both of us - may be a week or more out.
- Talk to the salesperson for half an hour.
- Get a quote emailed to me a day or two later.
- Talk it over with my boss. This is fairly low overhead, but he's a busy guy so it may take a few days. He'll want to know the basics, if I've considered any alternatives, what we'll use it for, etc.
- Sign the document - hopefully my boss/finance don't request any significant changes.
- Start using the service once they get the contract and provision stuff for us.
Usually we are looking at a few weeks lag time, and maybe half a day of my time taking care of all of this. If it is something available on AWS, here is what I have to do:
- Click a button, maybe fill out a form to configure it.
- Start using the service a few minutes later.
Even if it costs 2x the other service, it is unlikely that anyone is going to notice or care about the small increase in our AWS bill, and if they do saying "oh yeah, I added xyz service" is not going to raise any objections.
It is kind of funny to think about the difference, but it comes down to the fact that it is genuinely less friction in the AWS case, coupled with a bit of psychology on our end I guess.