All those things still have to be paid for by someone when you hire contractors. Which is probably why I always hear about contractors getting seemingly-absurd

All those things still have to be paid for by someone when you hire contractors. Which is probably why I always hear about contractors getting seemingly-absurd high hourly rates, if it didn't all come out about even, either we'd all be contractors or nobody would choose to be a contractor. The transaction costs here are things like all the negotiation that has to go in to getting anything done with contractors every time you want something done.