Yes, but that's at the federal level, where the economies of scale are better. Most towns contract out their websites and don't have capability. Paying Uber is cheaper than paying software engineers.

Yup, the US, in San Francisco.

Hmm, I feel like my experience on US websites has ranged from "decent but not great" (https://www.irs.gov) to "basically terrible" (trying to sign up for a healthcare plan a while ago).

I do get the sense our government used to be much more competent overall, and I think it's an interesting question how we can get that back.