Many of the comments here orbit around an idea that's been percolating in my mind for many years: We overpay, sure, for extra "capacity" which seems wasteful.

Many of the comments here orbit around an idea that's been percolating in my mind for many years: We overpay, sure, for extra "capacity" which seems wasteful. But when the burst demand arrives and you're not caught flat-footed (need a car now, need our online game/app to handle surge now, etc etc), the peace of mind makes it seem worth it. The entire wage economy exists to scratch this itch. Various auto-scaling strategies may creep in. But as soon as you lose business or lose an opportunity due to its lag time or "sensible" upper bound (or whatever), it is very tempting (and often makes sense) to abandon them. Another way of saying it: "The point of life is not to min/max everything."