The alternative - at government scale - is absolutely 'let's host this ourselves' and that's what they should be doing, to ensure that institutional expertise remains. They should also own and operate their own datacentres which should be physically secure, not shared with commercial ventures and guarded by the armed forces, not civilian security.
Why doesn't the government manufacture their own cars? They're going to lose institutional expertise in building cars! They should also own and operate their own manufacturing facilities which should be physically secure, not shared with some 'civilian commercial venture'.
By golly, the government can't do business if it isn't a datacenter operations company, a software vendor, and a car manufacturer.
