This is also why just 'use the cloud' is not really good advice, as with any broad and scaled system you can't just tack it on to a project you happen to be doi

This is also why just 'use the cloud' is not really good advice, as with any broad and scaled system you can't just tack it on to a project you happen to be doing. Inversely, not using the cloud because you need to know what you're doing isn't a good argument either; if you are going to build something that has to scale, be a bit elastic, and want to build on existing knowledge, you will end up using a larger system that requires domain-specific knowledge either way. AWS isn't a hosting company (and that includes let-us-pretend-we-are services; looking at you: lightsail), just like Azure and GCP aren't. But even if you get a hosting company (Vultr? prgmr? DO?) you'll still need to know how to build virtual machine images, how to deploy them, and how to cycle them. None of that knowledge will be something native to whatever project you are building. The only thing that gets somewhat close is the Deno and Vercel style of stuff, but even then you'll need to know how those work in order to make your project fit.