Setting up SSL/TLS on a single server in a virtual environment that you don't even have to manage is a different story than getting major changes tested and deployed on a huge multi-billion dollar, multi-tenant distributed system spanning not just the globe but multiple teams, languages, people and requirements.
Just so i'm clear, your argument is essentially: we should be more impressed more because they designed it in a way that made it difficult for them to do this?
There's no way to design a multi-million-user search engine in a way that makes it easy to design, test, and deploy major changes.
Where are the DuckDuckGo guys with a counterexample when you need them...
I know empirically this is false.
In my opinion, anyone should be able to get an A with a free certificate, or at least nothing beyond administration costs. Certificates cost nothing to make. Anyone paying a dime is just helping keep up the illusion that it is expensive.