My country reduced European VAT tax on coffee and nearly every coffee shop kept the prices at the same level. The government raised them back again later. I’d say this is not starbucks-specific, reducing VAT to lower the prices just doesn’t work.

These companies want to own all the hardware so you are forced to rent a computer. To buy a PC that does nothing by itself and requires some remote hardware to function. Amazon is already preparing a “game streaming” service, for example.