If you don’t have Prime you can either buy it for a single month or buy overnight shipping on the individual item. Both those options are far less than $29.
You did complete the challenge, but it proved that Amazon has a nearly insurmountable logistics advantage compared to competitors.
> ...has a nearly insurmountable logistics advantage...
Nah.
People in the boonies wouldn't be able to get gratis next-day shipping on that part. Based on the reports I've been hearing, they'd often be lucky to get six day shipping. Ya'll are now squarely in the part of the lifecycle where Amazon quietly practices aggressive "service differentiation" in order to keep its margins where they want them.