Lambda has 1mil free requests per month, so there’s a chance it would be free depending on your usage. But still, it’s not straightforward at all, so I get it.
Perhaps requiring support for bill capping is the right way to go, but honestly I don’t see why providers don’t compete at all here. Customers would flock to any platform with something like “You set a budget and uptime requirements, we’ll figure out what needs to be done”, with some sort of managed auto-adjustment and a guarantee of no overage charges.
Ah well, one can only dream.
> but honestly I don’t see why providers don’t compete at all here
Because the types of customers that make them the most money don't care about any of this stuff. They'll happily pay whatever AWS (or other cloud provider) charges them, either because "scale" or because the decision makers don't realize there are better options for them. (And depending on the use case, sometimes there aren't.)