At one point in my career I was one of those people. Not AWS but I went to many a conference on the vendor's dime. Ran up some impressive bar and restaurant tab

At one point in my career I was one of those people. Not AWS but I went to many a conference on the vendor's dime. Ran up some impressive bar and restaurant tabs while there. Also on their dime. Some vendors didn't have large conferences and would fly me to a nice resort somewhere for a few days which included some product info sessions. Usually at that point the people trying to keep your business and those trying to get your business are all doing the same thing so it is all ineffective in influencing your choices. In fact during that time I would say a majority of the vendors I was involved in selecting actually did neither. At none of them was there any kind quid pro quo even hinted at. My employer knew about and approved all trips beforehand. This is way different than what happened here. Direct payments to an employee for award of work without knowledge of their employer.