Am I right in assuming it’s not the amount of payment but the transition from $0 to paying a bill at all?

I’m definitely sure it’s saving me more than $140 a month to have CI/CD running and I’m also sure I’d never break even on the opportunity cost of having someone write or set one up internally if someone else’s works - and this is the key - just as well.

But investment in CI/CD is investing in future velocity. The hours invested are paid for by hours saved. So if the outcome is brittle and requires oversight that savings drops or disappears.

I'm curious, what are you doing that has over 1000 hours a month of action runtime?