I don't get how this was so important on shopping on Amazon otherwise - in 10+ years of ordering I never felt the need for Prime, for small items I just waited

I don't get how this was so important on shopping on Amazon otherwise - in 10+ years of ordering I never felt the need for Prime, for small items I just waited a bit to get over the free shipping limit. AliExpress really improved in recent years. For any off-brand item Amazon was always mostly resale of Ali items already (at 3x price), but shipping times and refund policies improved a lot (they added a 10$+ ordering tier).