I don't think it has much to do with Section 174. IMO, the explanation is that the software industry is saturated. Everything has been commoditized so it's chea

I don't think it has much to do with Section 174. IMO, the explanation is that the software industry is saturated. Everything has been commoditized so it's cheaper to pay for software products than to pay engineers directly. Salaries are high and the ROI for building your own software is low. Big tech companies still need a lot of engineers, but not nearly enough to absorb the massive glut of engineers looking for jobs. This is the new normal, like the legal industry 20 years ago