[bravetraveler]

German companies for all their precision probably make more than one spending mistake, like we do over here.

There's asymmetry you aren't considering: one engineer can make/solve many problems. Not even all on either side.

To be clear: I'm not taking a dig at this specific case. Larger patterns. It's more nuanced than X of these or Y of those. I'm not arguing in your vacuum/hypothetical

There need-not be an increase in staff in a lot of cases. Just better, or different, staff. If I wanted to earnestly dissect/solve this I wouldn't have opened with snide jokes.

The engineers hired to stave expense tend to go on to create it

The positive spin is: 'get the engineers anyway, self-hosted or not'. They'll help you optimize $solution. My point is things are rarely this positive. Things can be optimized to the point of being non-optimal.