This is incredible. If I understand the thread, that >$22,000 surprise bill was not forgiven by Vercel and the most they're willing to do is offer a 25% discount.

Is Vercel a business or a scam masquerading as a tech company?

If a company needs to stoop to this level of billing shenanigans to make money, I have my doubts...

Vercel have controlled the narrative that, managing your own infrastructure is too difficult or, it takes too much time away from shipping products. They want you to put your trust in them, but you’ll have to pay for it. This would be ok if you could trust them.

Many stories are emerging where it’s clear that trusting Vercel is a risky strategy.

This right here is why I never, ever use cloud services for my side projects, and only use them on the client's or employer's dime. I always use Digital Ocean, Hetzner, or some other provider where I pay a fixed amount per month.

Which is a shame as it makes it harder to learn things like AWS and Google Cloud (or for that matter, Vercel) in my spare time, and perhaps they might even work out cheaper for low-traffic hobby projects, but ultimately the risk is too great.