For a small greenfield project rolling your own Postgres is a very viable option with attractive trade offs for some. If it is now considered rarefied knowledge

For a small greenfield project rolling your own Postgres is a very viable option with attractive trade offs for some. If it is now considered rarefied knowledge in your circles you should be glad as this might a competitive advantage. Let the other startups spend x10-100 on their resume driven development and blaze through their runway. Common story actually. But suppose you don't need it and RDS as-is covers all your needs, which it often does, why rage? This is a continuum. If an early decision to punt and outsource it to the cloud was made it could always be reversed at an opportune moment. I don't think competent people see it as "the only way" just the most common and pragmatic option.