The Dumbest Dollars a Cloud Provider Can Make

The only reason I can think of to charge for the certification tests is to add "value" to them. Then again, if you see someone that has 10 badges on their resume you can assume they're at least familiar with that cloud provider.

And this doesn't have to be limited to cloud providers. What about certs for networking equipment, or office applications? Why charge pennies for those things when spreading the knowledge around is much more valuable?