At low scale it can definitely be true. My startup spends $0 on ops salaries because it's possible for an AWS-proficient backend dev to not need more than an ho

At low scale it can definitely be true. My startup spends $0 on ops salaries because it's possible for an AWS-proficient backend dev to not need more than an hour or two a week to maintain the entire production infrastructure. Our AWS bill costs us less than it would take to hire a person to run on-prem physical infrastructure. Not sure if you consider small startups to be realistic scenarios, though, so perhaps this doesn't count.