You do but you can actually negotiate discounts with AWS when you get to Direct Connect level. It's only cheaper than the other options. It's never acceptable.

This is why we're slowly and quietly moving back to a couple of cages in a DC. Well we were until the AI companies bought all the fuck RAM and SSDs.

Yes that’s the cheap option.

But to be fair, I deal with several customers that are in the double digit petabyte scale. When you’re operating at that scale, and have 7-figure AWS bills on a monthly basis, AWS is suddenly a lot more available to you and much more willing to accommodate pretty much anything.