When it comes down to it, we're not paid to code. We're paid to solve problems with code and if paying you $75/hr as a contractor to build me three webpages with CI/CD capabilities is it, then off you go.
$75? That's about half of what I would charge myself, and an agency is going to be $300 minimum.
They needed this developer to help them understand what they needed. Every project I’ve worked on (even personal projects) has a fair amount of this.
Yeah, if I paid a carpenter to build me a chair, then decided I wanted a stool, then ended up with a footrest, I would be really happy with him if he delivered all those things so I could try them and make up my mind. It could've been that the agents saw it and said "It's great but send me an email when they click the link", and then the development would have gone in that direction.
Out of interest, do you mean that seriously or are you parodying the sort of knee-jerk reply that an economist might produce?
Personally the capitalized "Real Problem" (along with my current mood) makes me lean towards sarcasm, but yeah, Poe's law...