I endorse everything you've said! Also, big consultancies have high costs (hello Booz! great lunch btw) like trade shows, political donations, lobbyists, ex-Agency/Military high muckety mucks on the payroll, etc. At least 50% of the project billings are set aside for this. Projects still need a 20% profit margin too. That might mean they're using budget staff; sometimes this means global software centres. If you think DBAs and coders in Mumbai or Warsaw might have a hard time understanding the organisational and political geography of all the States you'd be right.