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> it would have been cheaper if they'd just let the employees do the thing as employees in the first place

Keep in mind the company is probably not refusing to do things because of cost. Often it is because of risk.

A lot of people running businesses have terrible judgement when it comes to risk

But also a lot of people go off and try to create competitive businesses and fail, a lot of people also try to completely rework the business they're in and also fail (it's a disease in early stage startups)

PeopleSoft -> Workday

Apple -> NeXT