Running servers and services well is not trivial (2018)

Neither is: any complex manufacturing technique, chemical or pharmacology synthesis, drilling for oil, building a mile of interstate highway, assembly of automobiles etc but I don't think someone with 2 years of experience could either cause significant process damage or process improvement at these complex and expensive activities. I am therefore regularly shocked by how much money is poured into or otherwise spent on tech and tech workers and how laughable the result is. I've really never seen a server…

This is one thing feel intuitively but have trouble arguing. When a solution requires running a server, I mentally count it as much more expensive than if it's done locally and synchronously. I've noticed not everyone shares this bias, and I'm wondering if I'm unnecessarily conservative or other people are underestimating maintenance costs.