If you save $500k this year by optimizing some pattern or behavior (eg infrastructure) then why wouldn't that $500k also be saved the next year? You're right if it's a one-time cut (eg no free snacks this year) but most savings are going to be on things that happen more than once.

Agree on things like infrastructure optimization. Most significant savings happen on people costs though, and layoffs/hiring freezes tend to not last forever, and also have impacts on future growth as well.

Compared to the same amount of revenue offering, most top SaaS companies have >100% net dollar retention, which means that their existing contracts tend to grow year-over-year from usage/upsells, so the long-term value of that $1m in revenue increases over time.

Cost savings we count are usually recurring in the same way.

that makes no sense at all