When I saw what it cost I abandoned that idea.
Then I wondered - how does Windows Server continue to charge hundreds of dollars per instance when Linux and BSD are free?
Windows Server scales vertically.
The price of horizontal scaling is complexity. Networks partition. Clocks skew. etc. Now you're running a Kubernetes management layer to manage the cluster you've built.
The price of Windows Server is much closer to the price on the price list.
Or to put it another way, you can roll your own infrastructure, but the odds are you are not going to put together a system as well as Microsoft has. And if you are in business, the cost of Windows Server is just a cost of doing business and nothing in comparison with the salary costs of Kubernetes expertise (and your business is not Kubernetes).
To put it a third way, the people running the businesses that run Windows Server aren't dumb or unaware. They've run the numbers. Also Window Server is better funded than the free alternatives and is driven by sales not by developers solving their own snowflake problems.
Sure, it might not be for you, but TANSTAAFL.
Good luck.
Wouldn't choose it as a server if my applications doesn't require it, but I guess there are still a lot of cases.