I am paid hourly and I have literally, in the past week, billed ~14 hours to save ~$150,000 per month. We work for a client and we strive to make sure we're not spending more money in labor than we're saving in AWS costs. I don't know exactly the rate I'm billed at that the client sees, but I know for sure that on aggregate, aside from the actual productive work that I know adds value, I have justified every penny I've been paid in the last ~2 years through my cost savings work alone.
Maybe some folks overcharge or undersave, but I take exception to your comment that you're "sure is a net loss."
Edit: our monthly AWS spend is in the 7 figures. We go through cycles where our priorities change, but when we're in cost savings mode, we regularly discover cost savings measure that are a) implementable in double digit hours and b) save six figures per month.