I find the observation that 'programmers' are too cheap interesting. I think this might indeed be one of the core problems. Because devs are often a bit timid a

I find the observation that 'programmers' are too cheap interesting. I think this might indeed be one of the core problems. Because devs are often a bit timid and clumsy regarding the negotiation process they are taken for granted and all those hyper-complex systems are forced upon them. If devs would charge 500% more, maybe companies would opt to change their tune and give control back to the devs. Another aspect is 'responsibility'. Most companies don't want to bear any form of 'responsibility' and therefore they late Azure/Amazon/Google take care of it. However, what they forget is that in turn, they become dependent, which is even worse.