Engineering teams at Amazon does indeed have a lot of autonomy. I have been part of multiple teams over a fairly long periods of time (7+ years), and it's been my experience every time. There were times when it felt like each team was its own start up, at least when it came to deciding what to build / prioritize.
Agreed, engineering teams are effectively stable startups. You make your own decisions & get compete for funding (recs), while delivering products for other teams. If your team is unable to deliver for a customer team, they might make the solution themselves, and then end of with more recs (growing startup), at which point their team may break up into 2 teams if it gets to large. On the flip side, if you see a need within your greater org or company, you can get buy-in and build a great product for the teams around you.
