It's not like AWS or GCP have locations that are terribly far from major exchanges either.

> In North America, the median cross-connect price is $300, more than five times higher than $58, which is the median price in Europe.[1]

Of course, that difference means nothing to a hyperscaler, but it's led to a difference in pricing culture between the smaller providers.

1: https://www.fiercetelecom.com/telecom/study-u-s-fiber-cross-...