Why is observability so broken, and what can fix it?

are you talking about observability for AI workflows or more generally? I have a friend working on the former.

It’s broken because copying all data somewhere else to query isn’t scalable, technically or financially. Especially when all the observability business models are based on charging for data.

The whole observably industry is based on a flawed approach that you can add it in after the fact, ship that data somewhere else, then charge an arm and a leg to access it. That breaks down quickly in any non-trivial distributed system. Even when ignoring issues with sampling, it is cost prohibitive.