Agile was invented to try to get contracts (both faster, so as small lead time as possible, which is important for smaller companies, plus smaller upfront price

Agile was invented to try to get contracts (both faster, so as small lead time as possible, which is important for smaller companies, plus smaller upfront price tag, which is again very important for smaller dev shops in order to make deals). Less time spent on specifying the what. Just pay us in time & materials, and we'll figure out, plus the requirements are constantly changing anyway. Hence Agile was seen as a big win-win-win. And I've seen it done well.