I work at an f500, and I have worked in other data science groups at companies in the same industry. It's no huge thing for a large consultancy to be thrown 500

I work at an f500, and I have worked in other data science groups at companies in the same industry. It's no huge thing for a large consultancy to be thrown 500k-3M for a 6 month "predictive" project whose deliverables are some python code that trains simple scikit models. Absolutely grinds my gears too because the consultants turn in dreck that we're expected to fix to help the VP who hired them save face. Not sure why I'm sharing except that the last line of your comment really hit home for me.