with that essential caveat, this is a very good point. My backup drive died in the midst of this crisis, and I specifically chose to use backblaze instead of buying a new drive. Obviously, it's not a 1-to-1 tradeoff in terms of functionality, but it was close enough for this data that I felt like I was better off paying them monthly than paying an inflated drive price upfront; they were drive farming for me by proxy.
It's possible to infer collusion from indirect evidence, especially extraordinary pricing. See American Tobacco Co. v. United States, 328 US 781 (1946). It's not common, but it's not crazy either.
Yeah, I'm totally open to other analogies; I'd love to collect more and field test them a little. It's tricky to find a way to whine appropriately over 20¢ ;)