> But you don't need comparable capacity, at least not at first.

Agreed.

> But you're not paying primarily for tech specs, you're paying for somebody else to do the work. ... Honestly, I think for what you're paying, AWS should be doing more for you here

Also agreed, and this is why I don't think the value proposition exists.

We can agree to disagree on which approach is better; I doubt there's an objective truth to be had.