Why I stopped rebuilding auth from scratch and built a universal trust layer instead

I’ll admit it: I used to take pride in building bespoke authentication systems. Every new SaaS or client project meant spinning up a new database, writing JWT middleware, handling password resets, OAuth callbacks, and rate limiting. It felt like "real engineering." Until I realized I was wasting 2-3 months of runway on plumbing before writing a single line of business logic. Worse? The alternatives didn't solve the core architectural problem. Auth0 priced me out at scale. Firebase locked my enti