@Joe.Richardson - Thanks for clarifying many points.
The costs proposition is unique to each situation. I wish you success in your business implementation and know there are some clients that would gladly pay your per user costs for simplicity. I only know the wild west part of MS Access personally. Low tech, smaller companies that don't even understand the concept of a database (compared to an Excel spreadsheet) and would seriously balk at the idea of paying those prices "just" to have remote access via the internet. It's usually pulling teeth to get them to pay for database development or simply to implement this type of system. That's just been my (admittedly) limited experience.
I'm curious to see
@Pat Hartman's opinion after the tech demo since she is much more firmly involved with users/clients willing to pay for appropriate business applications and has a better grasp of the economics of that world than I do.