We are implicitly comparing it to colleges and every other competitor. That's what relative words like the way "predatory" is used here mean. Predatory relative to the rest of the field. It doesn't really have an absolute meaning.
I haven't reviewed their numbers recently but the historical criticism is that you end up paying more money for Lambda yet their placement rate was lower compared to similar bootcamps.
Would you say Santa Clara University is a "predatory university" if the average tuition is higher than UC Berkeley, yet the starting salary of their grads is lower?
