Semi-literate people building a power plant in a poor country don't know either, or rather, it may not be apparent when working on the project that 10% was taken off the top.

But I have to feel a lot of devs making a $1B simple app have a clue that something is off.

I think the power plant builders just by default assume they are being taken advantage of.

The devs are busy gathering requirements, going to meetings, being shuffled between projects etc etc. Consultants brought in. Stuff rescheduled. Maybe, maybe not.

Yes, this is probably it. And it's scary how intelligent professionals can exist in a system of total dysfunction and in a way not recognize it. This is worth studying - how the perception reasonable authoritativeness (which is not actually authoritative) perpetuates itself in social systems, i.e. the blind leading the blind, unaware they are blind.

I worked in a Fortune 50 and recommended we 'find some smart young devs' to work on this project, they thought I was crazy, it hurt my credibility. A year later, one of our interns quit and did the same thing, almost alone, with much greater success. I shamefully admit I was looking for my 'I told you so' comeuppance, shockingly, it never happened. The system was too inept and lacking in self-awareness to see what had just happened, internalize and adapt. Nope. Just a mixture of unaware, don't care, ignored, avoid. Someone at lunch somewhere might have said 'Wow, look at what that intern did'. Of course, they almost went out of business but it's not the same for other conglomerates.