The thing it's being compared to (desktop software) had the same functionality with none of those costs, and it was easier to develop. That's somewhat like a grocery store hiring a dozen egg-sitters to keep the egg supply emotionally supported or some other nonsense and then using that as a justification for the high prices they're able to charge, where an x% profit margin on the unnecessary job translates to significantly more money to the store.
Was desktop software easier to develop than SAAS? It was hard then and is hard now. Even using Electron doesn't remove the need for installers, upgrade paths, logging, diagnostic measures for client installs, troubleshooting when bad hardware is in the mix and only the client can change it.