The current trend is to have a strategy/build/run model. The "run" people keep the lights on and run as lean as possible. Builders build stuff -- code and infrastructure. Code is high value, off the shelf stuff is going cloud. Strategy is architecture and mapping back to business needs and dollars.
You pay as little as possible to run. You pay whatever it takes to build. As cloud tools mature and standardize, costs will drop here. Strategy is the governance process -- light in a startup, heavy in a bank.
If that were the case people wouldn't be using 'the cloud'. For any non trivial size of compute load that isn't on demand, paying aws or gce is flushing money down the toilet.
