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And/or a way to "offer more value" without the extra cost.

Same reason you get more trade-in credit for a giftcard then cash, hosting is "virtually" free, and kindles only cost production + shipping cost.

Not defending them, this is a useless offer, just offering another reason they'd have.

And $5 million is nothing for Amazon, especially given they're only actually spending a fraction of that as you mentioned.

People who run corporations either don't get or don't care that predicating relationships on deception makes people not like them.