We'd strayed off topic and were discussing an issue in nginx. Basic per-instance subscriptions for that are $2,500/yr each for small numbers of instances which is somewhat more than a couple of salaried hours.

Still not a large amount for a company with a profit making product, of course, but companies with profit making products are fewer and farther between than companies would like, and for a one-man-band or other small business trying to boot-strap something bigger, there isn't the same drop/ocean ratio.

Also, the implied problem (this still needs confirming/contradicting, so I might be barking up the wrong end of the stick) that it may not be updating name->address resolution regularly during normal operation (otherwise why does this only cause failure on start-up?) might not by fixed by the extra modules enabled by the paid licence.