>...use a service in which costs are not predictable, and keeping those costs under control requires employee training.

Isn't this a (mildly exaggerated) description of AWS, which is a very successful service?

Mmm… but for AWS its pay for external use right?

So your costs scale with the number of users you have.

Thats an op ex that you can explain.

For tokens for developers its maybe closer, cost/outcome wise, to hiring an external consulting company to write your code; money paid scales with work done, no promise of delivery, arbitrary unpredictable external price changes.

Its not quite the same; though, similarly lucrative for consultants.

>Mmm… but for AWS its pay for external use right?

Not if you're using it for running builds, running research jobs, model training, etc.