[jollybean]

In this case it is absolutely the user 'doing it wrong'.

AWS allows you to store gigantic amounts of data, thus lowering the bar dramatically for the kinds of things that we will keep.

This invariably creates a different kind of problem when those thresholds are met.

In this case, you have 'so much data you don't know what to do with it'.

Akin to having 'really cheap warehouse storage space' that just gets filled up.

"It's now complexity and scale makes it unusable for newer devs. I'"

No - the 'complexity' bit is a bit of a problem, but not the scale.

The 'complexity bit' can be overcome if you stick to some very basic things like running Ec2 instances and very basic security configs. Beyond that, yes it's hard. But the 'equivalent' of having your own infra would be simply to have a bunch of Ec2 instances on AWS and 'that's it' - and that's essentially achievable without much fuss. That's always an option to small companies, i.e. 'just fun some instances' and don't touch anything else.