I personally think that Shopify, as a platform, needs to look at what role they perform in the grand scheme of things. We can all sell on Amazon, and many of us probably have stores there (I do). But Shopify is like an Amazon of sorts, with a different overall plan. If you are going to be the foundation for many retailers, then by all means, get world class.
There is no reason that Shopify shouldn't be a gold standard for credit card processing, or be able to negotiate preferred shipping rates like Amazon so that other retailers could offer up PRIME like services under the umbrella that Shopify performs.
What surprised me about my original question, is that shopify doesn't really see itself as this alternative to Amazon, which I think is a huge miss. If Shopify, say, had negotiated shipping rates for all users to match the cost of Amazon Prime, wouldn't all retailers here do better during Christmas? If they build world class credit card security, couldn't that standard protect consumers and draw in more retail customers that need that trust factor with customers?
I don't want just a platform to put my website - I want all the tools that are at the disposal of the largest internet retailers out there...