> Sure, creation is much cheaper, but anyone who has run software in production at scale knows that maintenance, reliability, security, scalability, etc. is the majority of the cost

Costs which largely go away if the software you're using is so custom that it's only applicable to your six person team anyhow. That wasn't feasible before, but it is now.

The previously fashionable one-size-fits-millions approach to software hasn't treated users well enough to expect them not to defect when they're suddenly able to go it alone. For many, the quality issues are worth tolerating, because they're still less painful than something which was designed to be sold rather than to be used.