Are all hosted infrastructure prices this inflated?
With that said, Kubernetes might fix this because they have access to more parts of the system in a generic API. With tech like KubeDB[1] and other operators[2] we might see these prices coming closer to bare-metal.
[1] https://kubedb.com/ [2] https://github.com/zalando/postgres-operator
Of course, if you're on AWS then you'd be paying the EBS tax either way.
[0]: https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/storage/storage-classes/...
[1] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/linux/tutorial-sql-serv...
For a lot of companies, an extra $35 per month to save hours of work is a no-brainer.
Many people still prefer hosted services because (a) total cost of ownership can be much lower once you factor in the cost of a qualified engineer installing it, ensuring it's online 365/24/7, and keeping it up to date (b) comparisons tend to be apples-to-oranges, since many AWS services are charged on a per-transaction basis. With a VPS, it often appears a lot cheaper by comparison, but you're also paying for a lot of capacity (RAM, CPU, storage) that you're not using, and generally can't use most of the time because you need to reserve enough for peak periods.